Evolution in the Playground (Game II)

[Aegis J Hyena]

Somewhere, out there, in the depths of space, floats a lifeless, empty, Earth-like planet.

Okay, maybe not lifeless... as all manner of trees, plants, moss and ferns exist, dutifully transforming the carbon-rich atmosphere into an oxygen-rich one. Calm winds blow, the watery waves of the ocean lap at the beaches, and all is quiet; nothing stirs.

Until that is, the arrival of the superstorm to end all superstorms. Half the size of New Zealand, it forms off the coasts, a once-in-a-uncountable-time-frame event that threatens to rend the very continents in two as it makes its way across the world. The waters below it swirl and churn, dredging up primordial ooze that hitches a ride to the surface as a tornado begins to form.

Elsewhere on the very edges of the storm, a massive supervolcano erupts; its central chamber of magma explodes outward as the very earth quakes beneath it and causes everything above the surface to nearly shatter. Superheated boulders are flung miles into the sky only to be picked up by the superstorm and whipped around like pebbles in a sling. The primorial ooze slaps against such stones, boiling and bubbling and threatening to evaporate completely, leaving nothing but a dried funny-colored shell to show it ever existed at all.

A lightning bolt, the dagger of the heavens, pierces downward with a force that would put gods to shame and cleaves the superheated primordial oozestone into multiple pieces. The force of the explosion sends the pieces dozens of miles through the skies of the planet as if they were comets passing by, and with massive splashdowns the pieces reach their destinations and sink to the bottom of the depths. The combination of electricity, heat, oxygen, water and energy caused the primordial ooze to spontaneously evolve into a microbe... and very quickly this microbe divides to become two. Two become four, four become eight, eight to sixteen and onwards until the amount of bacteria in the oceans reaches numbers that we don't have names for yet.

That's... where you come in.

Alright folks, here we go again! Last time it was the Sandwater Aracanum... what will you guys come up with next?

Give me a one sentence description of how this bacteria evolves to become the sentient species on the planet. I'll take it from there. Each post will cover 100,000,000 years of time, and when we hit one million years in a week and a half's time, new paths will open up the same way they did last time.

That's enough out of me; I turn it now over to you. Start suggestin' ways this microbe evolves to defend itself against its opponents and let's give rise to a new civilization.

[GuesssWho]

I suggest we be poisonous.

[neriractor]

mmm... how about our new microbe has a way to gain energy from cold, as algae would gain energy from sunlight.

[Ramsus]

mmm... how about our new microbe has a way to gain energy from cold, as algae would gain energy from sunlight.

This sounds like an interesting direction to go, so I'll second it.

Unless we're supposed to each be suggesting ideas?

[Tentreto]

I suggest we develop a method of drawing nutrients from other organisms through osmosis

[JNAProductions]

It's able to split and reform, carrying its genetic information (and eventually memories) from each section, combining to form the best.

[Aegis J Hyena]

New links up to the game, so they're more easily seen in my signature below. :)

[lukitux]

I suggest being able to absorb water through osmosis and then fire it out as a jet for a burst of speed.

[Aegis J Hyena]

100,000,000 Years

Poisonous Body: 59
Energy From Cold: 60
Osmosis: 83
Genetic Split: 51
Absorbing Water: 97 (Success)

Current Appearance: Crystalline, with thick cell walls
Powers: Spew Water Jets, Natural Armor

100,000,000 years have passed. The darkest oceans slowly give way to the light of a million bioluminicent bacteria, of all shapes, sizes and translucent colors. All try to forge out a living in the deep depths, trying to survive over its "companions". Some develop cell walls too thick to pierce. Others develop a disturbing taste to keep opponents away. Still others flash chemical or electrical signals to scare enemies, while a small few grow to a size too big to be devoured.

D. Shloopi Dorfis, your bacterium, has evolved to gather energy from the very waters, relying on a jet of water both to confuse its enemies as well as serve as an escape route. Running away from predators makes it expend a lot of energy, leading to a brief drop in numbers while it looks for a new food source untouched by opposing bacteria. It finds one in the crystals on the ocean floor, created when heat and cold touch the ley lines of the planet and grow in weird, twisty shapes. Being in proximity to these crystals, it harnesses the energy as a photosynthic source. Waste energy is turned into defensive radiation.

With the defensive radiation up, this allows D. Shloopi Dorfis to focus on things like survival and procreation/division, evolving a crystalline cell wall in order to fool the tendrils and feelers of approaching potential predators. Thinking it's a rock or something inedible, D. Shloopi Dorfis' opponents float or swim right on by. Its cell wall also evolves a brightish, glittery exterior, which is used to warn potential predators away unless they want to try to bite through the hard shell.

Four dangerous predators have made their way into the "survival of the fittest" arena. The first one, X. Hyea Aginessi, is a long worm-like bacteria with several segments, each bristling with jellyfish-like contact stingers. The second is T. Vopal Gravimorium, a toxic amoeba with an incredibly flexible body, allowing it to bend in shapes that interfere with predators' "throats" such as they are. The third is J. Ayeik Pondo, a too-dense-to-swim ambush predator that relies on impenetrable cell walls and a harpoon-like stinger. The last is Z. Reditori Croctinii, who has learned to harness power from the waves themselves instead of searching for meat or plant food.

There are small holes in the ocean floor, perfect hidey-holes to go in and wait for approaching prey in case D. Shloopi Dorfis gets a taste for bacterium. There are also heat vents nearby, for a larger burst of energy. The last thing of note is that the "background radiation" of the world is beginning to change; something in the atmosphere is piercing to the depths and leaving areas of "dead water" where oxygen is extinct.

How will you evolve now?

[GuesssWho]

We should find a way of going longer without oxygen, so we can hide in the dead zones.

[Tentreto]

I suggest we develop a way to store heat internally, which can then be released suddenly as an attack

[neriractor]

I vote for evolving our caparace to grow hollow spines, wich we can use to pierce and suction other bacteria´s lifeforce.

[lukitux]

I like the idea of hiding in the dead zones, but I have a different idea. Find a way to generate electricity to run through the shell and electrolyze water to make oxygen.

[austbot]

I suggest that our cell walls become constructed like honeycombs. To allow for larger and more durable cells, hopefully increasing our defenses.

[Aegis J Hyena]

200,000,000 Years

Holding One's Breath: 50
Heat Storage: 64
Hollow Spines: 74
Electrozapping Water: 88 (highest roll, so it sticks)
Honeycombed Cell Walls for strength: 24

As I'm cross-universing this with two other forums (Reddit and one other), I'm not going to pause in updates. If very few people suggest mutations, you might fall behind! Heh.

We're at 200,000,000 years, and things have taken some interesting turns as the populations of bacteria ebb and flow.

X. Hyea Aginessi's jellyfish stingers are having a strong effect on T. Vopal Gravimorium, whose bendy body isn't much help against the piercing. J. Ayeik Pondo too is subsisting on them when able, leading to a sharp drop in the T. Vopal Gravimorium population. X. Hyea Aginessi has evolved toxin resistances thanks to devouring said amoebas, while T. Vopal Gravimorium is attempting to counter with harder-to-pierce cell walls (and failing hard), and J. Ayeik Pondo itself is having a rough time since it can't really move along the ocean floor and is pulled about by the waves. It's (slowly) evolving feelers and tendrils to move about on, like a fuzzy aquatic computer chip with a stinger in the middle of it.

D. Shloopi Dorfis has learned to grow a crystalline cell wall thanks to feeding off the crystals, and now looks a little bit like a barnicle or limpet. The other predators are having a hard time getting through such a defense and as a result your population soars as you "idle" about, feeding off the crystals and growing your "radiation aura" to greater intensities. The going is very slow, but it could be beginning to get you somewhere. The crystalline structure you now have -does- leave you open to subsonic vibrations at the moment, but nothing in the area is capable of generating sound down here in the deeps. You've created a crystalline lattice from absorption of the crystals, and this lattice is beginning to generate electricity. This in turn produces oxygen, allowing you to expand population that much faster. You are also able to poison enemies who are allergic to oxygen or overload others by generating too much for them to handle.

Today's main situation is the heat vents. Every now and again they explode, sending out superheated jets that reach untold lengths, warming every molecule of water that the jets come into contact with to very painful levels. The weaker bacteria get incinerated, leaving their charred corpses as material to build on the heat vents and making the vents resemble ghost-white spikes growing out of the ground, like the teeth of some vicious carnivore. The stronger are whipped into the currents and thrown about to higher layers of the ocean, where they're never seen again.

On the one side, being thrown into a higher layer of the deep waters will get you (maybe) away from your chief predator, T. Vopal Gravimorium (who attempts to engulf the crystal AND you at the same time, tanking the radiation. X. Hyea Aginessi is a weak contender for second place, its segments wrapping around you but not being able to penetrate the crystalline cell wall. On the other side, staying down here will give you better ideas about how to defend yourself for the future. Up there in a higher layer, who knows what might be evolving and there may be a lack of crystals to feed off of.

How will you evolve?

No post tomorrow. Saturdays are my Roll20 day. Next one Sunday.

[Tentreto]

Vopals seem to be dying out, as we seem about the only thing it eats, if we can out evolve it, it will probably just die out.

I'll suggest being able to store then release heat rapidly again.

Now we have to see if the playgrounders can hold off the tides of reddit. :smallbiggrin:

[neriractor]

How about we become extremely resistant to fire, so we can hide near and in the termal vents

[JNAProductions]

I vote for telepathic mind control.

[Patdragon]

Ability to burrow.

[GuesssWho]

A spike on our back, both for defense and to mimic the vent detritus.

[lukitux]

Wow, both of my suggestions succeeded. I wonder if the streak will continue. I suggest that we get the ability to electrify our shell so predators that try to absorb us get electrocuted. That should help against Vorpal Graviniorium. And I vote to stay down here. There are crystals to eat here, and I don't think there will be any up there.

also: I tried drawing one of those evolution trees for our bacteria. I will try to post a new one each saturday, as long as Ageis J hyena is fine with it. Reddit may have a faster post speed, but now we are winning on the art front.
http://i.imgur.com/BFrJsnW.png

[Aegis J Hyena]

300,000,000 Years

Electrifying Crystal Shell: 7
Defensive Mimicry Spike: 87
Burrowing: 96 (Success)
Telepathic Control: 78
Heat Resistance: 30
Heat Release: 78

Alright, everything is simultaneous now, rather than going in one specific order so you don't see others' actions until the next turn. I will be writing it from the point of view of the Reddit community then tailoring it to your point of view.

Cast of characters: https://www.reddit.com/r/FromThePrimordialSoup/comments/6007ka/the_cast_of_characters/ -- why have three copies of a file I need to maintain when I can have just the one.

Z. Reditori Croctinii has developed a means of dealing with U. Klixstem Faltoni's acids, by developing a series of bases and counter enzymes that turn wherever the two meet into salt! The salt barrier keeps U. Klixstem Faltoni from getting anywhere near close, but now the bacterium is evolving some numbing toxins instead of acid (think LSD, the "other" acid). They're not dissolving the salt, but they WILL prove fatal to you should you encounter them. The heat of the vents carries their salt-generating bases far and wide and now there are long "tunnels" of salt floating in the water, raising the PH. The salt dries out many other bacteria, including T. Vopal Gravimorium. This leads to a rush for a food source away from the vents as both of them are busy gorging on the corpses and ignoring you. Any salt tendrils that touch the ocean floor and reach J. Ayeik Pondo are used by that selfsame bacteria to build a salt shell -- nothing is going to be penetrating its cell walls now, not even X. Hyea Aginessi (who -is- developing a long specialized stinger, much like a needle-nose, on one end of its body).

U. Klixstem Faltoni rapidly breeds and divides from all of the corpses on the heat vents, and while it doesn't seem to evolve heat resistance (keeping it away from the hottest part of the vent), it has begun to modify its chemical structure so that its acids become a sort of numbing agent akin to a novicaine/LSD beerslam. Its predators are so dizzy that they can't fight back, and those it would hunt are poisoned even more -- instead of being scared away by the acids and poisons, they're drawn in as the numbing agent shuts down what passes for a cell's nervous system. U. Klixstem Faltoni's acids are not powerful enough to pierce your ley-line crystal homes, and the lattice you're now building from these things amplifying the numbing agent. This allows you to backlash it in an electrical pulse back on U. Klixstem Faltoni. Those two bacteria are neck and neck, and are living in unpleasant harmony.

In the meantime, you have developed two "burrowing" tendrils that dig into the crystals they feed on, enabling them to become one with the crystal. Their limpet shape shifts to be a teardrop shape, with both "burrowing" tendrils close to the point of the teardrop. This burrowing has enabled them to feed on the strongest point of the crystal, "drying" the crystal out and turning it as dark as the waters around them. When other bacteria come up to the burrow "opening", they are are ZAPPED by electrocution (from the first tendril) and injection of stored oxygen (from the second), killing the target. Before long the tendrils lengthen just a little bit to serve as feelers in the environment just outside the crystals. The downside is that these "black" crystals are as brittle as a rusty knife and about as useful. So far nothing is attempting to shatter the crystals they live in, though. T. Vopal Gravimorium is trying to tank its way in, but D. Shloopi Dorfis is not having any of it.

T. Vopal Gravimorium is attempting to evolve a stony exterior, so it cannot be "bitten through", but this makes it heavy and it sinks to the bottom, where J. Ayeik Pondo is able to harpoon it and survive. I think we might be looking at our first extinction here. X. Hyea Aginessi is evolving the aforementioned needle-nose, and it is losing some of its segments making way for a specialized energy store that makes it blink green, like a firefly's.

A huge boulder, dislodged from an seafloor mountain by a seaquake, has rolled over one of the main vents, crashing into it and sending everything flying. The vent isn't sealed, but your nearest source of heat energy has been utterly pulped and a lot of the crystals have become dislodged or disintegrated. There are other vents nearby and dozens of other crystals available for colonization, so if you choose to focus on those, you should remain fine if you plan to wield their might for yourselves.

How do you evolve now?
Do you choose to float away with the tide looking for a new bolt-hole, or try to head for one of the other sea floor vents?

[GuesssWho]

Can we turn the black crystals into spikes that detach and burrow into enemy flesh?

[neriractor]

Head for one of the seafloor vents.

I suggest we develop several "bait pieces" that seem like smaller tastier bacteria and can be used to attract prey to our new crystal homes.

[Tentreto]

I suggest that we improve our crystal homes, by secreting chemicals which strengthen the crystals.

[Patdragon]

Use electromagnetism (our electricity and earth magnetic fields) to float/hover/move to different areas.

[lukitux]

I think we should find a new vent, since they are a good food source. I also suggest digging tunnels underground and using the brittle crystals as entrances. Then predators trying to break into the tunnels would have to survive the shards of crystal caused by breaking them.

[Aegis J Hyena]

400,000,000 Years

Crystals into Spikes: 41
Bait Pieces: 87 (Highest roll, so it sticks)
Defensive Strengthening: 79
Electromagnetism: 19
Tunnels: 52

Z. Reditori Croctinii has split into two forms. The first form is an extremely light "larval" stage which mimics a blob of waste bacteria no one would want to touch, let alone eat. The second form is the bacteria's "adult" form, where it can generate its bases to put up the Salt Defense from U. Klixstem Faltoni. This near-weightless larval stage enables it to float far and wide, escaping the local predator chain and settling on several other vents all over the place. The larval stage is weakest when it's about to turn into an adult, and it's beginning to develop a salt skin "covering" in order to protect it from predators before it "hatches".

X. Hyea Aginessi is attempting to needle-nose through the salt shell but is having an easier time piercing larger prey, such as J. Ayeik Pondo still living on the ocean floor. The population of J. Ayeik Pondo is beginning to take another hit, and X. Hyea Aginessi is rapidly turning its needle-nose into a specialized "pick" or digging claw, or something, anything to dig through the salt to the precious proteins beneath.

Z. Reditori Croctinii has also elected to float away with some of the tides, looking for a new place to settle. As both D. Shloopi Dorfis and U. Klixstem Faltoni have elected to burrow into the heat vents with the former populating crystals closer to them and the latter using the heat as a means of defense, this means that Z. Reditori Croctinii will no longer need to worry about either of them. There may be new predators to worry about, but certainly not in this 100,000,000 year span. Their floating will bring them far from this location, and when they settle on a new vent (in three turns), there will be completely new bacteria to tangle with and wrest resources from.

U. Klixstem Faltoni has decided to follow the heat source, burrowing down into the heat vents. Slowly but surely they naturally develop a tolerance to the massive heat waves, pulses and spikes that flow through the deep earth, and all the meanwhile they're fixing to prey on anything that comes close. They've focused solidly on developing their control of their "nervous system toxins" so as to be able to produce a number of effects; this would be considered "emotional control through drugs" if this was an intelligent species concept.

This time the acids and toxins are even enough to lure you out of your protective crystal shell -- it is only through the bait and decoys D. Shloopi Dorfis now employs that the latter bacteria is able to survive at all. U. Klixstem Faltoni is RAPIDLY reproducing now, as it's able to lure almost any bacteria to its domain, surround it and devour it. J. Ayeik Pondo develops a bitter taste that U. Klixstem Faltoni ignores, while T. Vopal Gravimorium has no defense and X. Hyea Aginessi is now consciously avoiding them -- the needle-nose sucks up the control toxins and causes their energy store to burst upon chemical contact.

U. Klixstem Faltoni digs in, colonizing the vents as fast as it can in order to crowd out the other bacteria. Their heat resistance will only grow naturally from here until they can tolerate the extreme center of the vents, giving them an immunity. They ignore Z. Reditori Croctinii's larvae (and the bacterium in general) and focus on finetuning their "mental acids" some more. When some of this acid enters your crystal homes, the dried-out husk of crystal begins to break down so they can get at the chewy bacteria inside. Their acids aren't potent enough to break through to consume you yet, but next turn the crystalline shells / cell walls will not be a defense against them!

You have evolved bait and decoy tactics. By coloring the blackish points of your crystal homes, you're able to break brittle pieces off and make it seem like they're loose outside the "shell" and unprotected. Anywhere from six to twelve decoys are on any one crystal at a time, and it's having a noticable effect. T. Vopal Gravimorium is lured to the decoys like moths to light and you zap 'em, while you also begin to actively hunt things closer to the vents -- especially J. Ayeik Pondo, whose salt shell is porous to your oxygen injections (and thus they're "inflated" until they "pop" in delicious proteins).

X. Hyea Aginessi cannot compete with the decoys (it always attacks the wrong one only to have its needlenose zapped right off its ugly face) and is avoiding them. The crystals as a whole are getting stronger the closer they get to the vents, and so the bacteria go where the heat is -- and right into U. Klixstem Faltoni's domain. On the minus side, U. Klixstem Faltoni WILL pierce your shells soon. On the plus side, the "trails of salt" that form any time acid meets base are beginning to link individual crystals together... and the electrical pulses from your individual bacteria traveling from one to another are beginning to mimic the very basics of synapses...!

There are new crystals right by the vents, where mineral-rich earth meets the hottest jets of the vents. The crystals down here are a lot harder, and instead of being pure "crystal" or "hardened condensation where hot met cold" (as your current homes are), these crystals are heavily igneous / silica based... a rich, opaque chocolate brown to black. These crystals are slightly resistant to electricity, and more rooted to the ground instead of "floating in midair."

X. Hyea Aginessi is developing a pick to dig through T. Vopal Gravimorium's heavier body and J. Ayeik Pondo's salt shell.
T. Vopal Gravimorium is close to extinction, attempting to evolve spikes to "catch" the pick of X. Hyea Aginessi or deflect the harpoon of J. Ayeik Pondo.
J. Ayeik Pondo has developed a salt shell and is burrowing into the ground, eating dead bacteria and filterfeeding the ocean floor. It's... not having much luck.

How do you evolve now?
Do you aim for the stronger "crystals" that might shield from U. Klixstem Faltoni, or do you stick to your current homes, suspended over the heat vents and floating in midair while moving with the current?

[neriractor]

I say we should divide, a portion of out population goes to the new crystals and the others stay.


As for the evolution, We should improve our electric discharges, letting us focus a strong discharge around or crystals that decomposes the acids and toxins to their base components. (can you tell I know nothing about chemistry? :smalltongue:)

[GuesssWho]

I like the splitting up idea, but it might make things too hard.

Could we use the black stuff to help hide in shadows?

[Patdragon]

Harder/stronger electro resistant shell - Begin to incorporate the newly found silcas and igneous minerals into our shell.

[lukitux]

We need to go deeper into the crystal, we aren't safe from klixstem out here. And we need to develop toxin resistance, so we can survive the toxin nerve system.

[Tentreto]

I suggest a crystalising defence: If anything breaks through our crystal, they are exposed to a chemical that turns them into crystals.

[Aegis J Hyena]

500,000,000 Years

Crystalizing Defenses: 62
Toxin Resistance: 93 (Success)
Crystal Strengthening: 80
Electrical Strength: 89
Concealment (Chameleon colorshifting): 90 (Success)

Z. Reditori Croctinii is now floating peacefully in the depths, allowing the current to bring it wherever it wants. The first place the current brings the bacteria to is a series of curly spiral caverns on the seafloor, where an ancestor carved out an existence but has since died out. Z. Reditori Croctinii has colonized these curly tunnels (each no wider than a pencil point) because the water being forced through them is supercharging their kinetic energy stores. The bacteria lock the tunnels down and evolve a series of filter-feeding "combs" to filter through the tunnels, one after another in a series of layers. This is enabling them to grow at an exponential pace, beginning to outpace the other bacteria in the ocean.

The tunnels protect from predators, provide an alternate source of food, and make it difficult to want to continue drifting along with the tides looking for a new spot to settle. The nearest threat right now seems to be either stragglers from U. Klixstem Faltoni (which recede in number the further you get from their vents), or X. Hyea Aginessi. Their needle-pick-nose is now too wide for it to fit through the tunnels and it cannot get in by pushing its "head" in, but it works around this by backing in with its back half instead. The stingers on that end have increased their potency in response to your "hiding", and can reach out to prick you. It can't kill your species outright, but staying here where X. Hyea Aginessi can follow may not be a good idea.

You on the other hand have evolved a pair of changes. The first is resistance to the LSD that U. Klixstem Faltoni seems to be spewing everywhere; when U. Klixstem Faltoni comes along, you turtle up into your crystals and hide. Then you color your crystals to match the environment, and you do this enough to throw off both J. Ayeik Pondo and T. Vopal Gravimorium (the latter of which has shed their stony exterior to get their speed back only to be harpooned by J. Ayeik Pondo). This latter color-shifting makes it seem like the crystals are empty, so when X. Hyea Aginessi comes sniffing about or T. Vopal Gravimorium tries to worm its way into the crystals, both are zapped and injected with oxygen before being consumed. A byproduct of all this oxygen production/creation from the electricity means that you are becoming tolerant or resistant to oxygen, and you may be able to even incorperate it quicker than other deep-ocean bateria.

The salt "connections" it is making with other crystals of its kind are beginning to form salt webs among the crystals that trap even more oxygen, which manifests as bubbles on the web. Bacteria "fall out of the water" and into this air, to touch the webs and therefore dry out. This has a threatening effect on T. Vopal Gravimorium, who dries almost instantly on contact. Unprotected D. Shloopi Dorfis bacteria traveling the salt lines between crystals then consume or drag the dead amoebas back to the "colonies" springing up inside the crystals. While U. Klixstem Faltoni can break the crystals with their secretions, all this oxygen production is forming a "bubble shield" that is blocking them from consuming the bacteria -- and allowing a counterdefense to spring up from the electrical "tentacle whip" you've got.

U. Klixstem Faltoni has been seething in the heat vents for quite a long time now, and has developed a pair of "heat pockets," one to either side of its main body. When creatures that are not heat resistant get too close, *squirt* -- superheated water boils bacteria alive in their cell walls and allows U. Klixstem Faltoni to continue to gluttonize the surrounding seafloor. These heat pockets allow for a form of ballast control, allowing the bacteria to rise and fall with the cooler current and begin to move about even with the help of steering or movement fins. Each pocket appears as a tiny specialized "lung" on either side of the main cell. These squirters do two things: Fry J. Ayeik Pondo on the spot should it be found, and dissolve the connections between your crystalline homes. U. Klixstem Faltoni then waits for a large amount of your species of bacteria to gather on the "webs", then executes them with the heat pockets.

This way they don't have to worry about navigating the crystals to get at them. The only bad news comes in the form of X. Hyea Aginessi, who is capitalizing on these heat pockets with its needlenose-pick. The pockets are least protected of all at the moment, and when X. Hyea Aginessi strikes with both its stingers and its nose, the pockets burst, causing U. Klixstem Faltoni to "bleed out" most of its proteins. U. Klixstem Faltoni counterstrikes with its chemical warfare, but it seems that X. Hyea Aginessi is beginning to build up a tolerance to it -- the energy stores only become discolored instead of burst on "suck up" of the chemicals. A few more hundred thousand years or so and they might have immunity to their toxins.

T. Vopal Gravimorium is on the ropes. It can no longer engulf most bacteria as it has been doing, and the combination of J. Ayeik Pondo's harpooning from ambush and your salt webs is bringing it to the brink of extinction. Meanwhile J. Ayeik Pondo has begun evolving an even stronger "shell", and it hardly ever moves from a particular ambush point now. A tethered lure attracts smaller bacteria, but it doesn't look like they're going to evolve much further now that they're "hidden" just under the surface of the seafloor. Finally, X. Hyea Aginessi seems to focus both on U. Klixstem Faltoni now that it's built resistance, and Z. Reditori Croctinii who are nice and snug in their little hideyholes. Z. Reditori Croctinii is bigger than both of them at the moment.

You now have access to one "super mutation" -- This is a separate roll, so you vote on two things this turn. The highest roll of *these* mutations will become a vastly improved one (and I'll skip over it when getting the top five). If you vote for ocular nerves/photo receptors for example, they may end up being lenses or full blown eyes. More "super" mutations will occur at every half billion years, and at every billion years, you'll get one "hallmark" mutation of your species that will become even more powerful.

[Tentreto]

I won't add a super mutation yet, but for the normal one I suggest Luck drawn through the crystals, to start developing our magic.

EDIT
Ok, super mutation is going to be crystalising defence, as said earlier

[GuesssWho]

Mutation: Oxygen use

Supermutation: Grasping limb of some kind.

[Patdragon]

Ability stealing

[lukitux]

For the super-evolution, I think the salt web should evolve into a salt brain. For the regular evolution, I think we should gain the ability to pull the salt web (and any of our creatures on it) back into our crystals. Then we could rebuild it once the danger has passed.

[neriractor]

Mutation: become able to "see" by feeling the electrical pulses from other creatures (like a platypus)

Super mutation: expansion of our electricity, allowing us to create it with no energy expenditure and manipulate it more efficiently. (lets make it more magic like)

[Aegis J Hyena]

Man, we need more people here. I don't want to post a new thread in the recruitment though -- anyone else know people that would want to get in on this?

600,000,000 Years

"Feeling" Electricity: 67
Web Withdrawl: 80 (Highest Roll, so it sticks)
Ability Stealing: 54
Oxygen Adaptation: 13
"Luck" Siphon: 66

Super Mutations:

Electricity Control: 64
Salt "Brain": 42
Grasping Limb: 81 (Highest roll)
Crystalizing Defenses: 74


Z. Reditori Croctinii, while not being threatened as much by U. Klixstem Faltoni from within their little tunnels and caves, has absorbed both enough of the "mental-manipulation chemicals" of the latter as well as crusted up enough tiny pieces of crystal D. Shloopi Dorfis to force a chemical change within their "brains". The cells divide, but this time the nucleus of the cell stays connected to every other nucleus in the clump of individual Z. Reditori Croctinii. This enables it to (while not "think" as we understand it) understand it is being hunted and rely on "gut feelings" and "inner instincts" both for probing weaknesses of new bacteria, and "understanding" that its individual cells are a community for survival.

And in the light of U. Klixstem Faltoni being able to close the gap, its instincts are saying "MOVE. Right now!"

Z. Reditori Croctinii ejects itself from its home in the tunnels to float once again upon the waves and get as far away from U. Klixstem Faltoni as possible. They can have the heat vents, they can have the tunnels, they can have the crystals of D. Shloopi Dorfis, whatever. Z. Reditori Croctinii needs to go away from the scene as fast as possible, and that's exactly what it does. It spews its larvae into an upper layer of the waters where it is too cold for U. Klixstem Faltoni to follow, and where the salt shells are now starting to crystalize and take on a harder, razor-sharp structure to deter potential predators from feasting. These are the precursors of eggs.

Z. Reditori Croctinii in the meantime has learned to create a small "tendril" towards its "head" that it uses to feel out the corpses of dead bacteria, and suction out any useful DNA or parts it could repurpose into something it could use. The tendril is also useful for suction, and they can attach it to the bodies of other bacteria without harming them (they'll notice once they are penetrated them for DNA, but they can use them to travel on).

D. Shloopi Dorfis has learned to withdraw its salt webs, deconstructing the atoms in the blink of an eye and "suctioning" them into the crystal... along with anything that happens to be dried and dessicated / attached to it. The salt provides protection and a slight bit of regained material costs, but it takes forever to rebuild the webs on your own as X. Neutralis Thromalius has fled the scene, taking its secretions with it (which was the source of the salt that was capitalized on).

While it requires a lot more food now to rebuild the salt molecules (as a form of excretion) to create new webs, it instead designs a two-pronged "grasping pincer" appendage. They alter the crystals to have three holes instead of two for their appendages; one for the webs when they're formed (and which will be used for catching larger prey), one for the pincer, and one for its electrocution tendril. All the while it's giving off oxygen in the background as waste, bubbling up from the back from a waste-hole unless they draw it back in for their frontal bubble shield.

The bubble shield isn't enough to prevent U. Klixstem Faltoni's new ability to Blink -- they can blink past the shield or even in the space between crystal and organism, and feast on D. Shloopi Dorfis before it has a chance to react. Its numbers fall as U. Klixstem Faltoni's rise; it blinks around, striking everything but X. Hyea Aginessi with an advantage of surprise. The only thing keeping critters away right now is your defensive magical radiation, which others are rapidly evolving against.

U. Klixstem Faltoni has learned to Blink! It withdraws its "mental" chemicals into itself, combines those with the magic of the tiny crystal pieces that naturally break off of D. Shloopi Dorfis' home, and "believes" it is elsewhere. Before it knows it, it* is *elsewhere, due to being in close proximity to the magic of D. Shloopi Dorfis' homes. Even though the Blinks are only a few centimeters in distance from one point to another, it now strikes like a snake when it appears, lashing out at whatever it can. It is highly successful at this, and is beginning to clean out some of the crystals for itself even if the water is too cold now to support them well. J. Ayeik Pondo's shell is almost too thick to pierce, while this is the final nail in the coffin for T. Vopal Gravimorium -- the latter has gone extinct.

In the meantime, the concentration of the emotional chemicals and mental chemicals to lull its prey into a stupor has had a surprising effect on U. Klixstem Faltoni -- it has developed instincts which are naturally drawing it to those who are least defensive (T. Vopal Gravimorium) or to where there may be a space inside the crystal behind its victim (D. Shloopi Dorfis). U. Klixstem Faltoni's new instincts are going to prove very difficult to evolve against if it knows where holes in others' defenses are.

How do you evolve now?
Do you withdraw into your crystals, relying on their "radiation power" (attached to the ley lines) as a defense, or do you evolve for offense, in order to take on U. Klixstem Faltoni's new ability?

[lukitux]

If we are going to survive here, we will need a way to counter the blink. Maybe we start using bits of crystal in the web to make up for the sudden salt deficit and the bits of magic in the crystals somehow interferes with the blinking.

[Tentreto]

I might suggest we start to move away from this area, as unless we gain a good mutation, we can't really fight it.

Which is why I'm still pushing for crystalising defence.

If you want some people who might be interested, the Empire! players might be btw.

[Aegis J Hyena]

You poke them then, I don't feel like trolling any other threads to spam "wanna play wanna play hi I'm chucky wanna plaaaaaaaaay".

[GuesssWho]

You poke them then, I don't feel like trolling any other threads to spam "wanna play wanna play hi I'm chucky wanna plaaaaaaaaay".
LOL

As for mutations, how about filling the area they blink into with something nasty?

[Patdragon]

Moving away form the area seems a good idea.

We need either a fast escape or detection method to stop the blink otherwise.

As our shell my be a bit awkward for movement lets try some form gain a movement that doesn't hamper its defense

How about a form of gravity/density/telekinesis control to carry us away? or how about using our electricity to sense when it's near and stun it before it blinks.

I'll go with gravity control. To fling ourselves and maybe others about.

[neriractor]

I think we should evolve a mix of our abilities, combining the radiation and electricity to create a field where any creature trying to teleport (or move) in gets shocked and pushed back.

that is if we are not allowed to leave, if we are allowed to leave we should just develop our own instincts and hope we find some other sources of crystal out there.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Man, we need more people here...

700,000,000 Years

Blink Interference: 65
Crystalizing Defense: 66 (highest roll)
Poison Surprise: 21
Gravity Control: 19
Anti-Blink Field: 29

Z. Reditori Croctinii flees from U. Klixstem Faltoni, ascending to a higher layer of water where it is too chilled for the latter bacteria to pursue. You're still in the lightless depths, but you're out of U. Klixstem Faltoni's range now, and will no longer be a food source (or a threat) to them. As you're floating about in the water, and going where the currents go to refresh and strengthen your kinetic energy feeding, you are coming across lots and lots of "shelled" bacteria slightly bigger than you that you have not met before. The shells are actual shell-stuff -- regular poisons or toxins will not get through it and there is only the tiniest of holes where the bacteria can get in or out (think octopus and how they can fit into anything).

These new "shelled" bacteria, W. Norglug Zedtonii, seem to be filter feeders and almost as big as you are. A tiny steering tendril seems to push them against the current, with them eating anything that floats by by means of a "lasso" tentacle capable of reaching almost five inches in length. When Z. Reditori Croctinii floats by, these tendrils get caught in the filters that Z. Reditori Croctinii uses for feeding. This leads to a bit of an entanglement where the creature instinctively fights to draw in the "big food" through the tiny hole in the shell. The bacteria's great strength allows it to crush Z. Reditori Croctinii, even though its "eyes are bigger than its stomach" and it can't consume it. The corpses on the other hand that it leaves behind... do attract other bacteria, which will show up next turn.

They have learned to use the collective connections of your colonies to an advantage, and are now attracted in the direction of electrical signals of all sorts be they "brain waves" from predator or prey, electrical pulses from creatures of the deep, or what have you. They can't differentiate between anything other than it being "electrical" (which causes you to swarm like bees around it, trying to either steal DNA or engulf/filterfeed it). The other species around them are starting to evolve ways to dim their electricity, but you can still sense energy expended for things such as circulation or a "heartbeat".

X. Neutralis Thromalius escapes X. Klixstem Faltoni (though not you, yet). Neither will see what happens to the other.

Meanwhile, you have decided enough is enough with the blinking of X. Klixstem Faltoni and have strengthened your crystalline homes. When X. Klixstem Faltoni blinks into their crystals to strike, D. Shloopi Dorfis releases a chemical that triggers the crystals themselves to react and grow bits of themselves in all directions to fill the empty space. These crystalline spikes "pop" the heat pockets, and spray superheated water against the crystals and away from the bacteria. While it kills X. Klixstem Faltoni in the process, the superheated water dissolves the crystals, exposing openings.

The net result is that you are losing its homes faster and faster as X. Klixstem Faltoni sacrifices its greater numbers to dissolve crystal after crystal. More crystals do seem to grow on the ley lines, but X. Klixstem Faltoni is starting to outnumber D. Shloopi Dorfis. The other downside to taking damage to the crystals is that X. Hyea Aginessi is beginning to become very aggressive. It senses the breaks in the crystal, and uses its jellyfish stingers on its body to impale and pull bits and pieces apart.

Before long a large hole is exposed and X. Hyea Aginessi is able to squeeze in, blind D. Shloopi Dorfis with its energy store light by overloading what it uses to sense the environment, and go to work with its needlenose pick, which has now evolved a series of serrated edges. The pick tip opens like a flower to expose "petals" containing rows upon rows of energy draining suction spikes that can pierce D. Shloopi Dorfis without a problem. You attempt to counter both with salt webs and electrical tendrils, but it is the oxygen bubble shield that eventually "pushes" X. Hyea Aginessi away. X. Hyea Aginessi comes into more contact with X. Klixstem Faltoni because of this and fights break out that can only be described as precursors to the best of dwarven beer brawls.

X. Klixstem Faltoni has been working to strengthen its blink ability both in distance and in maximizing the surprise factor it would have against other bacteria. When the bubble shield begins to halt their advancement, they instead turn to an "enemy of my enemy is my friend... for now" approach. They bait X. Hyea Aginessi by squirting water and controlling their mental/emotional chemicals (hereby from now on called "Mentemo Toxins") to turn them super-aggressive. Then they lead them to the crystals and sacrifice some of their number to break apart the crystals. X. Hyea Aginessi begins tearing the crystals up with the jellyfish stingers on its body, beginning to mutate them into harpoons like J. Ayeik Pondo has.

The crystals pull apart, and more and more X. Klixstem Faltoni come in squirting superheated water everywhere. D. Shloopi Dorfis' population drops while X. Klixstem Faltoni has a field day, and their numbers grow to a point where they completely colonize the ocean floor and make it very dangerous for -anything- down there to come to the bottom to filter feed. The heat vents are slowly growing cold, however, as the plate tetonics of the planet begin to shift and push along the seafloor. There's no shortage of heat vents where they currently are, but their main populations are going to completely fill some of the largest. A new, larger, heat-immune bacteria shows up from the depths to contest X. Klixstem Faltoni's arrival, but that happens next turn.

How do you evolve now?

[Zayuz]

Hey! I saw a post by Tren on the EMPIRE! thread, and I thought this seemed neat. Seems like suggestions to our life form are chosen based on a dice roll, and we're competing for survival with Reddit, Goblin, and a couple other places.

Beyond the general understanding that we live in water, have crystal shells and some sort of pincers, is there anything I should know before I make a suggestion or two?

EDIT: That last update is a little foreboding.. Mind explaining what we've tried so far to counter their attacks?

[Tentreto]

Hey! I saw a post by Tren on the EMPIRE! thread, and I thought this seemed neat. Seems like suggestions to our life form are chosen based on a dice roll, and we're competing for survival with Reddit, Goblin, and a couple other places.

Beyond the general understanding that we live in water, have crystal shells and some sort of pincers, is there anything I should know before I make a suggestion or two?

EDIT: That last update is a little foreboding.. Mind explaining what we've tried so far to counter their attacks?

Possibly that you should be a little wary of what mutations can be countered easily...as I found out....


As a note, I'm voting to take our crystals with us and leave the area. I think we are relatively oxygen tolerant, so going up might be ok?

I'll vote for invisibility for the mutation. Hopefully that can't go too wrong...

now back to 12 hours of essay...

[Zayuz]

So the issue is that the creatures can surprise us with teleportation, let us pop our shells and work together to cut us up and eat us.

My vote is to gain the ability to simply remove the exposure time altogether by strengthening the crystals to become resistant to water regardless of temperature.

By this logic our defenses never dissolve, therefore covering our opening and preventing any of our attackers from being able to consume us at all.

Also, good luck on your essay!

EDIT: Hm.. Thanks for the info. It seems like being able to stop this teleportation and boiling water stuff should be our top priority. If my understanding is correct, then this superheated water dissolves the crystals, which is the root of our problem. It doesn't matter just how much they teleport around if they can't do anything with it in any case; being immune to the water should keep them from dealing too much damage.

Maybe once we're safe we should work on those limbs we made.. If we can pull our enemies inside our shells and kill them individually then that might be a good way to go about it. ..That, or get a more diverse food source. Crystals are neat, but I feel like we might get a bit more our of them by not coupling our food source with our main defense system. If our electricity tentacle thing learns paralysis, then we might be having a good time both defensively and offensively. I'm also thinking being able to place our electric target on our enemies might be a good idea. Y'know, if we don't care to become immune we may just be able to manipulate our opponents into fighting eachother by coating them in our electricity that other species are so attracted to.

Also, what on earth is a ley line?

[lukitux]

We live inside crystals that grow on ley lines. We eat the crystals for food, and then live in the hollow crystals. We can electrolyze water to make oxygen. Our main combat strategy is hiding in the crystals and attacking through holes in the crystals. We have 2 tentacles, one that electrifies people and one that injects oxygen. Out main competitor is the goblins forum. They can teleport and shoot boiling water. They are kind of winning.

My suggestion is that we learn to eat energy from the ley lines directly instead of the crystals. If we get that mutation, we should flee upward and find a ley line there, since I don't think we can win against Klixstem.

Edit: Ley lines are lines made of magic that stretch across the entire world. When two of them cross, it creates a magical effect. Different types of ley lines cause different effects. For example, the crystals we live in are created by the crossing of fire and ice ley lines.

[Zayuz]

Oh! Then I vote that following these ley-lines in the fire direction and adapting to them as a food source that should magically increase our resistance to superheated water.


In any case, I might replace my above idea with spinning while in trouble. If our crystal shells become broken, then the ability to spin and create a vortex of shards around us for protection could be a cool defense mechanism. Thoughts? The predators couldn't get close enough with teleportation without being spiked, jelly-whatevers will get shredded by the crystals, and then we could pull them back together by not spinning coupled with our unique grasping limbs. Our home remains intact and our enemies lie dead.

[GuesssWho]

Yeah, seems to me like we should follow the other guys away.

Can I just stick with the poison idea?

[Patdragon]

I think midichlorians are the answers to all out problems ;) Lets become the force!

Also lets flee the area.

[JbeJ275]

Lets take advantage of the ice leylines and flash-freeze the other organism to stop it releasing the superheated water.

[Aegis J Hyena]

800,000,000 Years

Invisibility: 87 (highest roll)
Resilient Crystals: 76
Energy from the Ley Lines: 36
Poison Excretions: 22
Ley Line Advantage: 7

A small post, but not a lot to show since the Reddit Bacteria has fled to higher layers and is gone.

D. Shloopi Dorfis has increased in size along with the rest of the bacteria in the ocean, to the point that the majority of them cannot fit into the crystals. The size and shape of a bone in your pinky finger, the bacteria live on the edges of the crystals rather than in them, warding off danger with its pincer and empowering its radiation aura to flashfry any bacteria that try to press the point. You are able to extrude your enzyme to make smaller crystals around you to serve as shells (and thus mimic your homes) but X Klixstem Faltoni has learned to perfectly mimic you in distress, catching and devouring those that come to investigate.

A new bacteria, H. Feyet Zogiferium, has arrived. This ant-shaped bacteria is immune to X. Klixstem Faltoni's heat pockets and worse, it is feeding off of its Mentemo Toxins themselves. It mixes these toxins with its own chemicals, producing bright light that makes it seem like a wisp of light floating in the darkness. When the light hits your crystals it heats them up, overheating you. It's learning to change the light's color for maximum effect, as well. Finally H. Feyet Zogiferium is using a suction tendril to catch anything it can and a stinger-hooked tendril to rip in like a knife. This breaks the defenses of both you and X. Klixstem Faltoni.

You've learned to "fade from the senses of other bacteria", however this cannot be accomplished in tandem with your crystal-building enzymes (the crystals plus your radiation aura give you away). You might need to pick one or the other at the billion year mark. In other news the amount of natural crystals in this higher layer is woefully tiny.

The last thing that stands out is that your radiation aura is diminishing -- the critters up here are beginning to be more resilient to it and aren't as threatened (though your electrical tendril still packs a punch to be reckoned with).

How do you evolve now?

[JbeJ275]

Are there any ley lines up here?

If there are any ice ones then we still need some way to stop being so vunreble to heat so I'm voting

Manipulate energy stored in ley lines

again

[GuesssWho]

Can we replace the crystals with something they can't mess with? Natural armor, maybe?

[Patdragon]

Electrical Stun to paralyze predators and prey.

[Tentreto]

Lets try radar sense, so we can see where friends and foes are

[Zayuz]

I vote for enhanced zapping arms!

[JbeJ275]

So I've done the math and (correct me if I've made a mistake) the chance of each mutation getting through =1/10+(9/10*1/x)
Where x is the number of ideas suggested that turn

[Aegis J Hyena]

Next post Sunday.

900,000,000 Years

Ley Line Manipulation: 50
Natural Armor: 73
Electrical Stun: 44
Radar Sense: 29
Enhanced Tendrils: 30

D. Shloopi Dorfis, under a two pronged assault from X. Klixstem Faltoni and H. Feyet Zogiferium, begins layering crystal on itself so as to basically be part of its own home. They can no longer move off of the crystals, but the currents are carrying the crystals further from both bacteria and it seems that H. Feyet Zogiferium is capitalizing on the sea floor instead of coming after you. You've entered into a symbiotic relationship with the crystals now; the crsytals nourish you when there's no bacteria to be had, and you build the crystals up. Soon crystal joins to crystal, forming a natural microscopic "crystal reef" that floats within the water.

You leave your pincers out to grasp at anything that floats by, lessening the number of places that other prey could use as hidey holes from other predators. Your "invisibility" is already being evolved away, as the crystals are now refracting their protectors (think Displacement or Mirror Image) making you incredibly hard to find.

You've also grown a bit more. Now the size of a thumb with a recognizable "head" (marked by an opalescent point representing the nucleus), your pincer is located at the "head" of the bacteria. Little growths around both the head and the tail provide slow movement about the crystal; while not fins or tendrils, they still get the job done. You're able to actually "push" crystals around (while still attached on their ley lines) so that they meet and form up into a larger crystal with multiple holes for your kind to live in.

With the crystals coming together, the magic inherent in them is strengthening and a pale white glow courses through the crystals, pulsing as if a heartbeat. The light brightens the surrounding darkness, and would be fun to watch if you had eyes to see.

The last thing that is happening is the radiation aura you've evolved is starting to harden and deaden you -- you're gradually becoming an *inorganic* bacteria, meaning that you will not be considered prey by meat or plant eaters. By 1.5 Billion Years however, the radiation aura will be evolved out.

How do you evolve now?

[Tentreto]

Wait, so we are literally a crystalline bacteria now? Or are we still organic, but just really not filled with nutrients?I would ask how that works, but I guess the answer would be magic...

Anyway, lets try specialised crystal growth, so we can grow crystals that are strong, luminescent, electrical power, etc.

[neriractor]

I say we should develop a sort of proto-brain, worked by our electrical reactions, and allowing limited telepathy.

[GuesssWho]

I think we should have some proper fins.

[JbeJ275]

I'm sticking with leyline manipulation

[lukitux]

Since we are creating these crystal reefs now, maybe this would be a good time to start being multicellular. The entire reef is one organism instead of a bunch of bacteria.

[Patdragon]

Hmm.. an inorganic being sounds useful. As such an alternative feeding would remove us from the food chain completely.

Lets evolve a kind of crystal photosynthesis

[lukitux]

I just realized that I forgot to draw our cell today. I will try to get it tomorrow.

[Aegis J Hyena]

One Billion Years

Specialized Crystal Growth: 27
Protobrains Still Smarter Than Trump: 74
Fins: 22
Ley Line Manipulation: 85
Multicelled Crystals: 39
Crystal Photosynthesis: 98 (success)

One billion years... where has the time gone? We've now adapted and evolved to something bigger and better, to what you might call a fish stage.

D. Shloopi Dorfis has evolved to live in symbiosis with the crystals growing on the Ley Lines, taking on the form of a small (fist sized) crystalline crab that mimics its surroundings. It extrudes chemicals to make the crystals grow, it carves into them to make homes (and proper "shells") for itself, and it wards off those who would gnaw at the crystals or damage the ley lines by modulating its radiation aura. Within the next billion years though, that will have evolved away.

The pincer is now settled inside a "shell" and a tiny microscopic feeler almost nine inches long lazily drifts in the current. Anything touching that feeler gets snatched by the pincer (now upgraded to a three-pronged tiny lobster-like claw) and withdrawn into the shell for consumption. Two "antennae" at the front of the mouth parts serve as both electrical sensors and electrical dischargers, enabling you to stun anyone that touches either them or the feeler that triggers the pincer.

You do not have eyes, instead sensing the electrical impulses of anything that swims close. Something that generates too much electricity causes you to instinctively withdraw into your crystal shells or into the crystals themselves in order to hide.

The crystals themselves have linked, forming rings of crystal that surround empty space -- actually where the ley lines are, if something that had a sense of magic could see the ley lines. As the lines get stronger, they push you and the rings of crystals; if the line was an artery, you'd move in time with a "heartbeat" in a given direction. You don't have control of where the crystals go but the combination of crab population and radiation aura are keeping the number of predators down... for now.

You've learned to extract power from the glow of the crystals themselves. The more that connect to each other, the more glow is generated, which makes you more powerful, which allows more crystals to grow, etc. However other species are starting to either gnaw at the crystals or try to ingest inorganic material... including you. You will be fully inorganic at 1.5 Billion Years (1.7 at the latest).

Next post, you meet the neighbors.

You can still suggest mutations but it's going to be harder to get them to stick. This time if I don't roll higher than 90+, it doesn't stick (high roll means nothing now). Mutations and changes will come from actions instead of actual suggestions.

Finally, you get a Hallmark Mutation -- this will increase in power on its own as time goes on until we hit 3.2 Billion years. You'll get another one at 2 Billion years.

With that in mind, Will You...

A) Head into a higher layer of water via Ley Line travel, with stronger rivals but possibly more food?
B) Search for shelter and bigger rings of crystal, to evolve in safety and keep population numbers up?
C) Become aggressive and attack surrounding predators AND prey, aiming for Apex position early?

Oh, and suggest a name for your new species (this will change at 2 Billion).

[neriractor]

option C.

I suggest a small simple name: geodits

and for evolutions, I think we should evolve an ant-like cast system, bigger soldiers with big claws, streamlined hunters with longrange shocks, smaller tenders of crystal, etc. Everyone can breed normally but our spawn is born into a caste depending on their placement near the leyline and whoever takes care of the young places them were the colony will need them more.

[lukitux]

For our hallmark, I suggest that we evolve the ability to use the glow magic of the crystals offensively. That, combined with our electricity, should be enough to fend off predators for a while.

The mutation should be conductive crystals, so we can run electricity through the crystals.

I like B, because more crystals close together=more energy.

For the name, I suggest Gemcrabs.

[Tentreto]

Lets try A. We get stronger with more light, soooo.

I'll support Gemcrabs for now

As for hallmark, I'll go for learning to 'Phase out' essentially go ethereal for a period of time.

I think we still suggest mutations? If so, I'll go for ley line weaving, being able to create our own ley lines.

[GuesssWho]

Protobrains Still Smarter Than Trump: 74

I laughed.

Mutation: Ability to hover between ley lines

Hallmark Mutation: Spellcasting

B) Search for shelter and bigger rings of crystal, to evolve in safety and keep population numbers up

Gemcrab is good.

https://i.gyazo.com/9d6a25d6a6f59ce689877d14a8c379ee.png

[JbeJ275]

Were probably going to have to end up on land at some point so I vote A.

Mutation: Ability to release energy from ley lines

Hallmark Mutation: Ability to animate other rocklike material

Let's get us a golem army

[Patdragon]

Mutation - Stronger Electrical blasts

Hallmark - increase in size - Lets become huge power stones of magical energy! Hell maybe even the crossroads of leylines ;)

Option A Rise Higher

Gem crab seems fine for now indeed

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.1 Billion Years:

Hallmark Mutation: Offensive Glow (8), Phase Shift (21), Spells (76), Animate Rock (94), Size Increase (73)

Caste System: 51
Conductive Crystals: 70
Ley Line Weaving: 41
Jumping between Ley Lines: 66
Energy Release: 46
Enhanced Electric Blasts: 7

A) Head into a higher layer of water via Ley Line travel, with stronger rivals but possibly more food?
Result: 69 (Mostly Successful)

No mutations made it, while your hallmark is Earth Animation -- the longer your species thrives, the greater your ability to manipulate the earth -- and this includes your crystal homes. Now you just need a source of earth, as nothing currently uses earth in its makeup. Perhaps it's time to weave the ley lines into the ocean mountains?

For the most part you've spent this 100,000,000 years making huge networks of Crystal Reefs that surround ley lines, and these things stretch almost for miles. The good news is that they're beautiful constructs in the lightless depths that reflect and refract what light does make it down here, making it an extremely spooky place. On the minus side, anyone can identify where ley lines are now and when fish and things try to swim where there are "holes" in the crystals, they short out and die. You spend a lot of time cleaning your homes of the dead things that you can't eat (because inorganic).

Now the neighbors. You've got three predators, and three potential prey species.

First we deal with the prey. First is the Plarth, which appears to be a narrow chopstick-shaped critter that wants to symbiote your reefs. Except when it injects its mosquito-like nose into the crystal, it vibrates for a moment and then shatters to dust (which it sucks up) -- the shattering will kill any Gemcrab attached to that particular plane of crystal, but most know to get out of the way once the damn thing arrives.

The second prey is the Levitating Drop, a translucent teardrop-shaped creature that looks like a finger-sized deer tick. Bigger things that bite it will squish it into goo. It floats in the current absorbing your radioactive aura for its own and it seems to gain nourishment from it.

The last prey is the Stiltcrawler, an insectoid that moves slowly about your crystal, cleaning dirt and plankton off of it. When grabbed at its "stilts" can pierce a Gemcrab's surface, but it's too weak to be an effective predator. If you focus that prey down, it's sure to go extinct later.

Your first predator is the Diamondback Vibrator, a narrow shelled thing from the ocean floor that shoots forth a vibrating tendril whose vibrations are tuned to break both your crystals. These hits produce disharmonic explosions that tend to fracture the reefs in hundreds of places at once. This means it feasts upon you quite easily. If it manages to somehow strike your electrical tendrils, it neutralizes them completely and permanently.

The second predator species is the Gorfian Doozer, a hot dog-shaped creature with a light sensor on one end and a MASSIVE ball-shaped mace on the other. It spins in circles, slamming against your crystals. It's looking to eat -you- instead of the crystals, and showers of crystal fall to the ocean floor whenever this thing's around.

The final predator is the Hammerlancer a wedge-shaped shelled creature that propells itself with water jets and rams your reefs head on, fracturing them and feasting on you by shooting out sticky tendrils like those of a frog's tongue. Huge tracts of crystal reef go spiraling into the abyssal waters when these things attack in flocks.

Will You (pick one)...

A) Focus on defending your crystal reefs against the multiple other species that are gnawing away at them?
B) Work on instead networking the reefs into literal hills or hives of crystal too intense to pierce?
C) Focus mostly on defense not having to worry about organic food since you're becoming an inorganic life form?

[lukitux]

I think B. We keep building up our crystals until they grow too big to fail. For our mutation, I suggest symbiosis with the stiltcrawler. We grow planktons or algae that they use for food and they clean the crystals and help defend against predators.

[Tentreto]

I'm going to vote for A, on the basis that our crystal structures can still be shattered.

I'll go for a enhanced movement, making it easier for us to dodge, and then counterattack

[GuesssWho]

C sounds useful, as does allying with the stiltcrawlers.

As for a mutation, I suggest we find a way to shoot crystal spikes.

[JbeJ275]

We really need to evolve crystal brains now

Also I vote B

[Patdragon]

Vote B and lets go for an "aura sight" as a mutation

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.2 Billion Years

Man, we need more people... doing this for less than half a dozen people isn't fun...

Survival Rate: 25% (To start) +0 (0 bonus mutations) -3 (Poor Success on Choice) + -4 (4 Predators) + 1 (1 Food Source, being inorganic) = 19%
B) Work on instead networking the reefs into literal hills or hives of crystal too intense to pierce?: 30 (Not very Successful)

Symbiosis with the Stiltcrawler: 86
Enhanced Movement: 30
Crystal Spikes: 14
Crystal Brains: 84
Aura Sight: 25

No bonus mutations. Super Mutation to come at 1.5 Billion Years.

I'm going to start keeping track of a survival rate, which goes up and down based on actions and mutations. At the end of 2 Billion years I'll roll it and if I fail, that's all she wrote. Evolution isn't just about evolutions and counter-prodding your opponents for weaknesses; there's a fair bit of luck in there as well.

You spend these 100,000,000 years networking the reefs. From the reefs comes longer tunnels, and from these tunnels come connections to the sea floor below. New ley lines are beginning to snake their way through your crystalline halls as a result of your work, and from these you're also able to begin to siphon magic itself (also an inorganic food source). While you siphon dry the ley lines that come through your halls, you leave alone the "big ones" that are a part of the planet's natural world so as to not destroy your potential food source.

These "reefs" reach down to the ocean floor now, making up huge hills and "hives" of shiny magic crystal. Big predators can't fit in the holes, while many other smaller species live in harmony with the crystals and use them to both advance themselves and hide from their own predators a la "mirror physics". Soon there are small fish and other creatures that have learned to use the magic crystals to develop a displacement field to fool predators, and others literally rip "panes" of crystal from your homes and swing them wildly like huge blades.

The bad news to all of this is that it is bringing you in range of new threats. The "reefs" reach down from ley line to ocean floor, in some cases several dozens of feet high. These crystalline hives might be strong on the outside, but many species including your enemies have learned to deal with them.

The Diamondback Vibrator inserts itself into the wall of the hive, vibrates, and brings the whole house crashing down. The Gorfian Doozer looks for the reflection of your homes on its light sensor and then just goes to work slamming your homes with its mace-like tail constantly. Sometimes not even to eat, but to "have something to do in the lightlessness of the dark deeps." It's ignoring the reefs on the main arteries of ley lines, staying in favor of ocean floor hive-homes.

The Hammerlancer has been assaulting your hives with its flocks of population, wedging itself in. When it can't use its tendrils to find Gemcrabs and feast upon them, it uses its new weapon, a mixture of chemicals that produces a self-detonation. This disharmonic explosion causes its unprotected larvae (released on the shockwave) to eat your homes and you from the inside out if it can catch you.

Finally we have a new predator, the Echi. This thing looks like a hardened amoeba with an hourglass shaped body. On one end are a lure like an anglerfish and a pair of hollow gelatinous "fangs" that spurt superheated water. This water dissolves your crystals. It also has a stinger that rewrites DNA; when it strikes you your internal organs harden and eventually a few new Echis are born. Finally it has a disturbing ability to appear and disappear seemingly at will.

At least this last predator can't tolerate cold tempratures -- if you move away from heat vents you should be able to keep the Echis off your back.

Will you...

A) Go aggressive, focusing on killing everything coming within reach of your homes and teaching them a lesson that way?
B) Break camp with the crystal hives on the ocean floor, and stick to the main ley lines to avoid ocean floor predators?
C) Construct razor-sharp "traps" of shattered crystals as a first layer of defense?

[JbeJ275]

C

And learn to animate them to seek out our enemies as a mutation

[GuesssWho]

More people mean more chances of mutation, too . . .

B and a cold aura.

[JbeJ275]

Have you tried sending a message to the people who played with the Sandwater Arcanum?

Besides Geusswho obviously

[Tentreto]

We are really divided for such a small group...A

And I'll go for Luck, subconsciously brought through magic.

[aberratio ictus]

C and crystal brains to make it smart traps.

[neriractor]

A and secrete a sustance that hardens the crystal and makes it vibration proof.

[lukitux]

A, the ability to use the ley lines for offensive magic. Also, since we are near the ocean floor, can we use our earth animation ability?

[Patdragon]

C and lets make some "rock nets" to use to pull our enemies towards those sharp edges in a trap using our earth animation.

I'm picturing the predators restricting wire net here.

[JbeJ275]

I wonder what happens if it's a tie?
Also if we asked for a mutation linked to a choice but the choice was voted against

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.3 Billion Years

Dropping the "survival rate" concept and instead having it "drop" a small amount every turn. It'll go back up based on actions and mutations.

I'll roll the chance at 2 Billion. If you do go extinct, well... can't all be lucky ones...

Seeker Traps: 75
Cold Aura: 73
Luck: 60
Crystal Brains: 89
Vibration Proof Crystal: 10
Offensive Magic: 42
Rock Nets: 92 (Success!) (+2% Survival)

50-50 between A and C... (51+ for C): 100 (C)

C) Construct razor-sharp "traps" of shattered crystals as a first layer of defense?: 3 (Critical Fail)
Survival Rate: 100 - 17 (Critfail) +2 (Mutation) +2 (Retreating Predators) = 89%

Super Mutation to come at 1.5 Billion Years.

You've attempted to set up Crystal Traps to destroy the Diamondback Vibrators and the Echis who seem to teleport directly into your homes. While the idea is good in theory, in practice it turns out to be terrible -- the traps trigger, spewing crystal everywhere. This does more harm than good when the shards end up wedging into fracture planes much like the way the Hammerlancers do -- with the same amount of damage. Your hives on the ocean floor are rendered completely useless as everything comes down like a house of cards. Your survival puts you back on the ley lines themselves, dropping the hive concept for the reefs connecting ley lines.

You still link up to form reefs of crystal, and when the Diamondback Vibrators cause the floating reefs to crack and shatter, the young Gemcrabs scramble and swim for their lives. Without light to refract their location and render them invisible, they can't hide for long and it's a feeding frenzy, especially for the Gorfian Doozers if they can outwit their own predators. If you were higher in the waters this might cease to be an issue down the line.

Good news: The Echis have decided to ignore the surface of the ocean floor and have retreated into the heat vents. That's one less predator to worry about despite you being somewhat unprotected (survival +1%) and the Gorfian Doozer has been chased off by stronger predators attracted by their constant mace-bashings (also survival +1%). You've also discovered a type of mite that lives on your crystals and is exceptionally nutritious. However they don't spawn or exist inside your reefs... only on the outside surface (and usually on the underside -- no survival boost from it yet).

This turn's question is whether you want to stay down here or move up the waters. The waters above are ripe with plankton and plant matter, and you could possibly evolve a way to convert said matter into another form some other life form could use, creating a symbiosis. There's a lack of sediment up there though with which to continue to build your reefs with. Staying down here invites the Hammerlancers to continue to pester you, and if they keep doing as they've been doing, they might win the evolutionary race unless a defense is thought against them... fast.

You've riddled your reefs (mostly on the undersides where the mites are) with rock traps just as sharp as the crystal traps you've been setting up. Your electrical tendrils have grown sharper as they've been used in tandem with the claw to "sharpen" the rocks, allowing your electrical tendrils to function as spears. When the Hammerlancers assault from the underside's shadow, they're knocked off course (and often times senseless) by the rocks... and predators looking for them start to gather under your reefs, looking for food.

With that in mind, Will You...

A) Head for higher waters, preventing the reach of the Hammerlancers and maybe the Diamondback Vibrators as well? There's a lack of sediment though...
B) Focus on this new aquatic mite? Its excretions are inorganic, and that supplies the Gemcrabs with energy.
C) Stay down here with a lot more sediment in the water with which to build reefs with? What is destroyed can be rebuilt...

[neriractor]

B, and I suggest we evolve a way to trick predators into attacking each other, perhaps minor illusion/enchament magic.

[lukitux]

I vote C, I'm not ready to abandon the reefs yet. I think that we need stronger and more structurally sound reefs as our mutation.

[aberratio ictus]

B, and adapt our traps to work better in tandem with our rock nets, instead of spewing crystals everywhere.

[JbeJ275]

I vote for the ability to cast off rounded material towards our predators that turns into a bunch of spikes after they eat it.

[Tentreto]

Of course we get the 100 in the roll off, then the critfail in the actual decision.... We are really not lucky.

Lets go for B. If we can make this work, we can move around a bit easier. If we could, I would suggest moving into shallower waters to get the best of both.

And for mutation, I will advocate the ability to go ethereal, which might save our crabby selves.

[Patdragon]

While like the idea of building a reef my vote is for B When we become inorganic ourselves we should hopefully be safer.

As such a mutation will be oxygen control - Lets suffocate our enemies. I'd assume when we're inorganic we wont need it.

[GuesssWho]

B--which looks really weird when you bold it, BTW. As for a mutation, how about thicker armor on our actual bodies?

[JbeJ275]

We really need to find some atoll or stretch of coastline somewhere

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.4 Billion Years

Predator Tricking: 57
Stronger Reefs: 44
Crystal-Rock Doubleteaming: 66
Spike "Food": 64
Etherial Ability: 63
Oxygen Control: 82
Stronger Armor: 11

B) Focus on this new aquatic mite?: 26 (Mostly Unsuccessful) [Survival drops by 8%]
Survival Rate: 87 - 9 (Unsuccessful action + Mite defenses) = 78%

Super Mutation to come at 1.5 Billion Years. (will boost survivability if it drops below 75%)

Well that sucked. The mites quickly evolved to turn toxic and organic in your digestive systems. These toxins act both against your crystals and anything that produces electrical energy, like your tendrils. While still nutritious to the strongest that survive (enabling a little bit of poison resistance) they're becoming aggressive and trying to squeeze into holes in your crystalline homes, extruding a weak acid that turns the crystal into proteins for themselves. They jump at you when you try to deal with them and it requires a fair number of Gemcrabs to literally pluck these "lice" off your crystals. They're branching out into different sub-type of bug; some eat the crystal, a small bit try to get under your crystalline shell, and others try to subsist where crystal contacts ley line. All are quickly becoming a problem.

On the plus side, while the mites are giving hell to you, they're giving hell to everyone else too. The Hammerlancers attract hundreds of them when they attack the crystals, and are now beginning to get away from the crystals -- no longer seeing you as a potential food source. The Diamondback Vibrators they surround and swarm like bees, stopping the creature from vibrating. It eventually builds up so much energy that it bursts and the mites feast. You've adapted to this by sectioning off bits of crystal for them to live in, and there's a clear boundry where Gemcrabs live and where these mites live.

The mites are starting to evolve a little nub where liquid crystal is extruded as waste. This is the nutritious part of them, since you're inorganic. The liquid crystal is also a stronger "version" of the crystals forming on the ley lines, enabling you to refract the ley line energy and set up "conduits" of powerful magical energy. What these things can be used for next is anyone's guess, but when magic is weak and vulnerable, any "trigger" to set it off will make the magic power act like the trigger (much like striking a match in a room full of gas). Some of these conduits end in "rooms" for the Gemcrabs where the magical energy is being harnessed into floating crystals of preserved magical power.

Lots of rocks are falling from the higher levels of the ocean. Seems like the surface ain't so stable.

Will You...

A) Harvest the liquid crystal from the mites, using it in tandem with these new "power crystals"?
B) Try to exterminate the mites before they sever your connections to the ley lines?
C) Capture the meteoric rock to have sediment to work with (and inorganic minerals to eat), working them into your crystal homes?

[GuesssWho]

A and toxin resistance.

Also, you need to fire your dice :smalltongue:

[JbeJ275]

C and the ability to fire focused energy from the leyline

What types of leyline are we living on anyway?

[Tentreto]

C, and lets try exploding crystal shards.

[Patdragon]

A and we need a bit of intelligence

[lukitux]

A and we need the mites sections to be on the outside of the reef, so they can defend it from enemies. Meanwhile, we stay safe in the inside bits harvesting the crystals and the mite biproducts.

[neriractor]

C and I suggest we develop the ability to wake golems from inorganic material(the Crystal, cartilage, etc).

[GuesssWho]

C and I suggest we develop the ability to wake golems from inorganic material(the Crystal, cartilage, etc).

. . . I'm pretty sure that cartilage is organic in every sense of the word.

[aberratio ictus]

C and I'm still for crystal spike/rock doubleteaming.

[neriractor]

. . . I'm pretty sure that cartilage is organic in every sense of the word.

Must be getting my biology confused :smalltongue: but hey, if we can make organic golems that's a boon too.

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.5 Billion Years

Poison Resistance: 99
Focused Fire via Leyline: 43
Exploding Crystal Shards: 25
Intelligence: 8
Mite Symbiosis: 42
Golems: 53
Crystal/Rock Doubleteaming: 63

C) Capture the meteoric rock to have sediment to work with (and inorganic minerals to eat), working them into your crystal homes?: 17 (Unsuccessful)

Survival Rate: 78 +2 (One Mutation) -2 (Unsuccessful action) = 78 +8 (Super Mutation) = 86%

The math I use for determining the unsuccessful action is that I take the numbers in the roll and add them together (in this case 1+7) and add a small amount based on a list I have (in this case -3). If the numbers add up to more than 10 I add the numbers together (so 11 in this case becomes 1+1, or 2).

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.

Next post sunday. You people and your desire for golems. :P

In order to capitalize on all the meteoric rock falling from the higher layers of the ocean, you've evolved a "sniffer" on the end of your pincer/claw. You can accurately determine the makeup of any inorganic substance by using the "sniffer" in combination with your electrical sensors. Fortunately for you there was a lot of rock to practice with. Unfortunately for you, this rock was reactive with the ley line crystals.

This has resulted in the creation of a mineral called Felodesium. It manifests as a paper-thin "oil slick" with the hardness of quartz that renders particular portions of crystals "sealed off" -- Think of it as a liquid plastic coating disallowing anything to touch it, be it mite, you or something else. The Hammerlancers are killed on contact with it and the Diamondback Vibrators can't make it vibrate. If you can learn to do something with this somehow, it might be the kind of protection you were looking for.

Some of the Gemcrabs have seen to attempt to feed or harvest the liquid crystal coming off of the mites, which I'll call Krysmites from now on. The Krysmites are now mostly focused on trying to sever the crystal reefs from their main connections on the ley lines. It's a full scale war, and the Gemcrabs are slowly evolving into classes (warrior, scout, alarmer, etc) to deal with the full-time threat.

If the Krysmites succeed in severing your crystals, you're going to be out one home when it loses power and all you'll have is the internal power of the reefs that it had before being severed. Where the Krysmites leave their liquid crystal excretion on the ley lines, new crystals can't grow on it.

You've also gained a super mutation. The pincer you've had that changed to a tiny lobster-like claw has now become a seven-tendril manipulator on a main stem. The middle tendril is the sniffer; the rest are electrical sensors that literally have electricity arcing between them, giving off a faint hum. You still have the "antennae" too in order to sense your environment.

You've evolved specifically to deal with the toxicity of the Krysmites; they are once again prey.

Will you...

A) Focus your efforts on extermination of the Krysmites?
B) Attempt again to "domesticate" them as worker ants train slave ants?
C) Attempt to get around the Felodesium coating somehow, or use it against the Krysmites?

[neriractor]

B and I suggest we evolve our rock control to fully fledged natural geomantic abilities.

[lukitux]

I suggest B, and we get the outside of our reefs coated with felodesium. That should defend against external threats, and we are symbiosis-ing with the internal ones.

[Tentreto]

I'll go with symbioting the liquid crystal excretions to strengthen the ley lines by excreting our own stuff over them.


Also, I'll vote A, as while b is good, I don't trust our luck in the slightest.

[JbeJ275]

B and rock golems

[Patdragon]

Gotta go for A as there messing up our homes and leylines.

Lets evolve an overseer cast with intelligence to help with the attack

[GuesssWho]

C, and perhaps some sort of Lightning Gun using those tendrils?

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.6 Billion Years

Geomancy: 29
Working with the Felodesium: 43
Symbioting the Krysmites: 65
Rock Golems: 19
Lightning Gun: 92 (Success!)

B) Attempt again to "domesticate" the Krysmites as worker ants train slave ants?: 64 (Moderately Successful)

Survival Rate: 86% +2 (one mutation) +2 (Moderately Successful) = 90%

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.

You're getting better at "domesticating" the Krysmites, even if it is "herding cats" instead of full on domestication. You can get them to where you want to go, at least. You're nowhere near intelligent enough to try to construct cages or traps or anything to keep them, so for now it's just pushing them in desired directions while they give off their liquid crystal and your "worker types" harvest it for later use. When the Krysmites are not looking, you layer this liquid crystal over the Felodesium, giving yourself a place to move.

The Krysmites are trying to take pieces of crystal coated with a tiny "chip" of Felodesium on it in one corner of the piece, and using it as a "knife" to try to cut the crystal reefs off from the ley lines. where reefs are cut loose, the Krysmites jump to the ley line and swarm it, sealing the "wound" made by the break and they begin to construct their own crystal hives. These ley lines have an unpredictable effect and whatever Gemcrab reefs are on it begin to change in wild ways. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not, but always strange.

You outnumber them but for the moment you can't out-fight them when they start waving their crystals around and going "I will cut you." like some sort of juiced up crab as when the Felodesium point of their crystals hits you, you split like an egg. The Diamondback Vibrators have left the area, while the Hammerlancers have done a 180 and are going directly for the mites, ramming them with a front "spike" on their nose now that bursts the mite on impact. They're ignoring you and focusing on the mites.

Finally, you've evolved your "inorganic sniffer" to function as both sniffer and as a battery. The tendrils next to the sniffer are gathering electricity via kinetic energy from the current, and when the sniffer brushes against predators or a threat, ZZZAP. You can also blow apart reefs where needed or blast a particularly heavy cluster of Krysmites this way.

Will You...

Continue your Domestication? They may throw off the "yoke of oppression" if you don't.
Focus instead on separating into "ranks" or "castes" of jobs to better effectively work the crystal reefs as an ant colony would work an anthill?
Use your new electrical generator to blow apart the Krysmite colonies around the ley lines, aiming to dispatch their hives before ley line changes ruin your reefs?

[lukitux]

I vote for us to continue domestication. It has been working-ish so far. For our mutation, I suggest the ability to assimilate the Krysmite hives into our own.

[JbeJ275]

Mutation: Ability to use energy which exists in leylines

[neriractor]

continue domestication, when they are under control we can just have them make hives somewhere else. I vote we evolve telekinesis.

[aberratio ictus]

Domestication and some intelligence.

[Patdragon]

Either way its down to the dice... So lets carry on with the "domestication."

And i say we somehow Evolve a symbiosis with the Krysmites. Perhaps something like we join forces with shelter building for more protection or we grow them on our backs and thus control when they access the ley lines and how much. Plus that's extra protection on our backs.

[GuesssWho]

A, since everyone else say so :smalltongue:

Can we find a way to weld things with the lightning gun? That would make repairs easier.

[Tentreto]

A, as I'm late today. Let's try intelligence, as we are going to need that soon, if we want to rule the world

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.7 Billion Years

Assimilate the Krysmites: 20
Ley Line Energy: 29
Telekinesis: 53
Intelligence: 50
Symbiosis with Krysmites: 99 (Success!)
Welding via the Sniffer/Feeler: 57

A) Continue your Domestication? They may throw off the "yoke of oppression" if you don't.: 15 (Unsuccessful)

Survival Rate: 90% +2 (one mutation) -6 (Unsuccessful) = 86%

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.

Well, that was a disaster. You try to continue the domestication of the Krysmites and they've straight and up rebelled, laying entire reefs to waste with a new defense: an acid excretion that dissolves any crystal it touches incredibly quickly. More than ever now your reefs are being severed from the ley lines and sinking into the depths forever because of this and if it happens for anther straight 100,000,000 years, you won't be able to keep enough reefs on the ley lines to make it worthwhile anymore.

What reefs are connected still have power coursing through them; the rest of the floating reefs are beginning to look pitted and halfway wrecked from all the new predators that are coming into being and eating the crystals raw or just plain doing damage otherwise. We're almost getting to an armored fish stage so things are becoming far more complex.

Then, one of you geniuses manages to coat themselves completely in the liquid crystal given off by the Krysmites as a quick disguise. As long as there's that liquid crystal layer on you, the Krysmites can't sense beyond it and see you as just another mite. You're able to adapt it so that you are now in symbiosis with the mites, and can harvest their liquid crystal as needed without being attacked. This gives you a desperately-needed population increase in the wake of all the severed crystal reefs.

You still haven't addressed the problem of the reefs, but at least you got the mites under control. When you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?


Will You...

A) Attempt to adapt the liquid crystal layer to a "glue" to keep the reefs affixed to the Ley Lines?
B) Add hollow, air filled chambers to the reefs and get them to start floating away from the Ley Lines, looking for less mite-infested ones in the upper layers of the ocean?
C) Attempt to adjust your crystals homes to "unite" with the Ley Lines, becoming a seamless whole so they can't be "chopped off"?

[neriractor]

C and we should evolve hormones to completely control the mites, now that they believe us to be one of their own.

[Tentreto]

C, and let's try moving the ley lines, as if we can't go to it, it comes to us.

[JbeJ275]

We should make an acid resistant crystal

[lukitux]

C and we should turn the krysmites into one of our castes. A

[Patdragon]

Seems a unanimous C vote so far which if we are lucky for once will solve the problem. However a bad roll seems like it would end this idea. and i'm almost tempted to say B and escape to a new area.

Even so i'll Vote C

and see if we can Evolve Intelligence finally that will help us to do achieve this.

[GuesssWho]

C. Mutation: Fuse with the mites

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.8 Billion Years

Hormones: 82
Ley Line Manipulation: 57
Acid Resistant Crystal: 35
Caste-ing the Krysmites: 74
Intelligence: 26
Mite Fusion: 69

C) Attempt to adjust your crystals homes to "unite" with the Ley Lines, becoming a seamless whole so they can't be "chopped off"?: 89 (Extremely Successful)

Survival Rate: 86% +5 (Extremely Unsuccessful) = 91

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2 Billion Years.

"You realize of course... this... means war."

You've altered the chemical structure of your Crystal Reefs to "link" with them by using your electrical generators and the sniffer to "etch" them and route the ley line power in such a way that it becomes one with the reef. This has turned your reefs into intense magical batteries, storing untold magical power within the crystal.

The good news is that you can modulate the light, enabling you to flash strobe-light messages like a firefly at distant reefs. The bad news is that all this power in one place is beginning to overload the "fabric" of reality where the reefs are, causing strange things ranging from after-images to spontaneous explosion. You've dealt with this by constructing crystal tower "bleeders" of raw magic off the tops of your reefs, but it isn't helping much.

If the fabric gets too burnt, the ley line dies and with it the reef itself, causing it to go dark. When this happens, the mites go APE**** and begin tearing into you, the crystals, and each other. Their nutrient-rich liquid crystal is replaced with their intense acid defense, and that's all she wrote.

The Krysmites have started to adapt to your change. They now can't cut the reefs loose from the ley line, so they're infesting the ley line itself, resulting in shortages and outages of "magical power" every now and then (though not as bad as the burning of reality's fabric.) If they infest it too much the ley line will die.

The bleeders on top of your reefs are also scaring away anything else that might land or get close to the crystal to feed or hide in. While it's keeping the bigger predators away, you're starting to become quite dependant on the Krysmites and their liquid crystal for nourishment.

Will you...

A) Focus on controlling the magic in the reefs, so that there's less of a chance of fabric burn?
B) Focus on the Krysmites, trying to keep them off the Ley Line?
C) Etch your reefs with channels to carry the bleed-off to a safer spot, like the ocean floor?

[neriractor]

B and I suggest we adapt to become inorganic sooner, so we can get rid of the annoying Kysmites.

[lukitux]

Get rid of the Krysmites? We need them for food, so we have to keep them. For our mutation, we need to domesticate the krysmites. And I think A, it is the only long term solution for the magic bleed.

[JbeJ275]

Find a way to release the magic constructively either in blasts or to replicate spell effects

[GuesssWho]

A and chaos adjustment. Because Lovecraftian horrors are fun!

[Patdragon]

I'm actually thinking C might be the best course of action here as we might be able to get the Krysmites to feed on the bleed outs at the ocean floor.

As for a mutation that could help us at this point as a back up lets evolve a Magical power sink/absorption ability

This could be us absorbing magic into ourselves quicker, a type of anti magic/spell resistance. But i'm hoping for more or a power store type thing that will boost our spellcasting later.

[Tentreto]

B, just to give a wider chance.
I shall suggest condensed waste deposits, to both take bleed off, and give the mites something to feed on

[Aegis J Hyena]

Skipping tonight since I'm tired and feeling uncreative. Next post tomorrow.

[Aegis J Hyena]

1.9 Billion Years

Survival Rate: 91 +7 (Critical) +2 (One mutation) = 100

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2 Billion Years.

Condensed Waste: 82
Power Sinks: 43
Chaos Adjustment: 27
Constructive Magic: 72
Domesticate Krysmites: 55
Speed up Inorganic-osity: 99 (Success)

Roll off between A and B: 99 vs 8

A) Focus on controlling the magic in the reefs, so that there's less of a chance of fabric burn?: 98 (Critical!)

The magic within the crystal reefs is being condensed, strengthened and distilled to near 100%-proof potential. When one of you can link into this Purest Of Crystals (PoCs from now on) you find you can impose your wills over the entire reef the PoC is linked to. However only the largest and strongest of the Gemcrabs can wield this power, turning into a "queen." The reef belongs to the Queen, her word here is law.

Each Reef has one PoC and only one PoC, focused at the center of the reef. Each PoC has a different "flavor" (lack of better words) that when two reefs link up now, their "connections" of reefs will not hold and it's as if someone sprayed Felodesium onto the connections. So too do the Gemcrabs give loyalty to their Queens, setting up the foundation of a tribal nature.

Using the power of this PoC, you're able to feed directly off of it and become fully inorganic. The plus side of this is that you no longer need the mites if you don't want them, as individual Gemcrab populations can survive on the power of their PoCs alone. The downside to this is that we have the "Blood Elf Addiction" from WoW here -- the PoCs are now your only source of food barring the mites, because predator AND prey are keeping clear of all the reefs snaking their way throughout this layer of water.

The water is brightly illuminated now, with pulses and currents of light almost as powerful as those of water. Sure the light can't reach very far, but if you had eyes to see then you'd be able to see a great deal of your underwater realm.

How will you bend the PoC (and thus the Reef) to your will for the next 300,000,000 years? Leave your response as part of a comment (it'll be treated as a mutation suggestion with a 74% chance of happening, but if it fails it goes bad).

Otherwise, Will You...

A) Focus on the Krysmites, to exterminate them before they destroy the ley lines?
B) Focus on Reef Building? You might not be able to link with other reefs, but you can intertwine with them as long as they don't touch...
C) Focus on self, automatically mutating strangely next turn due to the power of the PoCs? Could be anywhere from godlike to trash.

[neriractor]

A.

we will exploi the PoCs to imbue ourselves with the energy of the leylines, manifesting new powers depending on the type of leyline we use.

We should evolve our intelligence.

And I don´t understand, are we closer to being inorganic or are we inorganic? I figured if we were inorganic we would just full-stop needing food.

[GuesssWho]

C. Evolve eyes. Use the PoC to give us a better chance of positive mutations.

We're inorganic, but that doesn't mean we get energy ex nihilo.

[Tentreto]

C
I'll suggest lures to bring in alternative food sources

[JbeJ275]

Is our crystal still vunreble to being superheated?
If so ordinary mutation chance on that

[Patdragon]

Gotta be C what could possibly go wrong...who wouldn't want the chance of godhood...

As for 74% chance of mutations happen. Yay. Everyone get your votes in now!

Lets see eyes, check, intelligence check, alternate food/energy sources, check.

hmm...we already get a magic induced mutation at 2.0 so... regeneration?...Nah too normal...oohh...lets go with Grafted Parts . As we are inorganic now i guess we grow and heal oddly so lets incorporate the part of other (dead?) critters into ourselves. Example we lose a leg in a fight but our buddy gets squashed by a rock bar some legs. Free leg upgrade. Might even work with other races. ;)

I think we should bend the use of the PoC so that we as a race can control more of the seas. Lets just build them huge and see how high they can get.

[lukitux]

I vote C. I still think we need something to control the krysmites. How about giving the queens mind control magic.

[Aegis J Hyena]

2.0 Billion Years

Next post sunday.

Survival Rate: 100 (plus many bonuses from all PoCs successful equals 100 :P )
Ley Line Survival: 92% (Rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.3 Billion Years.

PoC Suggestions:

Powers based on Leyline Flavor (26+): 76
Better Chance of Positive Mutations (26+): 93
Superheat Immunity (14+): 52
Sea Control (14+): 32
Mind Control Magic (14+): 25

Regular Mutations:

Intelligence: 63
Eyes: 34
Lures: 21
Grafted Parts: 16
Krysmite Control: 3

Ley Line Roll (2d5 based on Krysmite infestation): 8

C) Focus on self, automatically mutating strangely next turn due to the power of the PoCs?: 98 (Critical!) Oh what is this...

You made it! That's what counts.

You've focused on yourselves, using the PoCs to mutate beyond anything normally found in the deep waters. This turn you mutated in such a way that when enemies brush against the tops of your crystalline shells, they reflexively grow sharp spikes strong enough to pierce some armor. These spikes retract the moment the danger or thing that touched you has passed.

You've also worked the PoCs over, allowing further mutation attempts to be a lot easier. Suggestions succeed on 80+ for the 2 to 3 billion year push, but only the highest rolled in the case of more than one. By the same token any mutation that -fails- will be that much worse, because of the sheer power of the magic you're now addicted to. Those that fail may endanger the species. You will slowly gain powers based on the Ley Line's Theme once you reach a higher level of intelligence (won't happen until next stage at 3 Billion Years), and your crystal reefs are now immune to any effect that involves superheating. Finally, the Queen can influence creatures swimming close, planting a subconscious curiosity. This leaves them ripe for your race to strike, using the Queen's new water control to "vortex" them in place, paralyzing them.

You've completely weaned yourself off the Krysmites because of the magic addiction (and they can no longer be influenced), and they're now everywhere infesting the Ley Lines. You can't stop them at this point because they're breeding too rapidly (and you didn't focus on them the last turn), and one in five ley lines die as a result. Each turn the Ley Line Survival rate will drop by 2d5 and I'll roll at 2.5 Billion Years and 2.7 Billion Years. If both rolls are failed you will go extinct from a lack of Ley Lines; if the first one succeeds the second one will get a bonus.

On top of that, we have a Magic-Based Mutation. You now have the ability to reflect trace amounts of magic with your shells and manipulate magic with your electrical sensors which manifests as a clear grey "goo" of some kind. This goo seems to magnetically repel the PoC and if too much is put near it the PoC will shatter, killing the Reef. When Gemcrabs of a given Reef link up and form a "carpet" covering the reef, you can reflect medium-level spells and this is expected to increase the longer you survive.

You've hit two billion years, so that means a hallmark! What will your next one be?

Time to pick two instead of one. Will you...

A: Use your Reefs to "surf" the Ley Lines to get to a place where the Krysmites aren't as thickly populated?
B: Manipulate this clear grey goo into something useful for the Reefs?
C: Head for new waters where Reefs aren't as thick, aiming for the surface? Reefs are -everywhere- down here and this is your last chance to change climates.
D: Dive into the depths, heading for stronger Ley Lines but also more dangerous things living on them thanks to the Krysmites being food for other things?
E: Put out all your power to surface as quick as possible, trying to get closer to land before anyone else does?

[GuesssWho]

A & B

Eyes again for a normal mutation.

Hallmark: Use the grey goo to steal spells

[Tentreto]

B and C
For regular, i will suggest an anti-mite field.
For hallmark, ley line building.
I guess the question​ is do we want to be land based or sea based.

[JbeJ275]

B & E

Earth Golems for regular

I got the last hallmark someone else can choose this one

[Patdragon]

Ok so we have a big choice before 2.7 million years... we either need to wipe out the Krysmites, become not magical dependent, or move to a different leyline. As wiping out the Krysmites seems difficult and we are nearly being of pure magic i guess moving is easiest.

So Votes C and E for me lets get to the surface.

Normal mutation: Spell immunity we are already beginning to reflect magic, perhaps now we simply absorb it and it has no effect.

Hallmark mutation: We shed our physical forms and become Beings of pure magical energy!


I see us heading and living oin coastal area with sea control and animate rock abilities.

[lukitux]

B and E, for our hallmark, I suggest life drain. be able to convert the life force of organic matter into magical energy. for our regular, I suggest legs for our reefs so we can move onto land instead of having to build entire new reefs there.

[Aegis J Hyena]

2.1 Billion Years

Eyes: 72
Earth Golems: 97 (Successful)
Spell Immunity: 2
Anti Mite Field: 54
Reef Legs: 91 (Successful -- while I said top rolled last post, this beats the 90+ you need normally rather than an 80+ so I'm running with it.)

Hallmarks:

Goo to steal spells: 70
Ley Line Building: 68
Pure Magic Energy: 12
Life Drain: 33

Survival Rate: 100 +4 (2 Mutations) +8 (Hallmark) +9 (Successful actions) -12 (Survival drop) = Still at 100
Ley Line Survival: 88% (Rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.1 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.3 Billion Years.

Ley Line Roll: 4

B: Manipulate this clear grey goo into something useful for the Reefs?: 93 (Extremely Successful) [Survival drops by 3]
E: Put out all your power to surface as quick as possible, trying to get closer to land before anyone else does?: 72 (Very Successful) [Survival drops by 9]

You've taken this goo (a byproduct of just being around the PoCs, as they're magical and you're reflecting it back) and used it to construct something useful for the Reefs -- at the topmost point of the reefs the goo is set into a sort of crystalline "frequency tuner" that can be used to lure biological material to come look or explore the reef. Since you're inorganic you have no use in eating what comes to visit, but the attraction sets up a biological niche. You're literally creating ecosystems by having several different creatures come and live/hunt/etc among the reefs.

On the very bottom of the reefs are several "spikes" or stalactites of this grey goo, which I'll call Torvicium. The Torvicium "awakens" the ground beneath the reefs, and pulls it upward like a magnet. Huge clusters of earth and rock now cover the Torvicium spikes, and you use these to sculpt large hollow shells of earth that individual groups of Gemcrabs can "pilot" and control. The Earth Shells, as I'll call them, are probably about the size of a large fist. It'll even pull dirt and metallic elements off of fish swimming under the Reefs.

The Earth Shells serve two uses at the moment: To spread themselves out over the ley lines (suffocating the Krysmites since the reefs themselves can't break off the ley lines) or serve as defense against big predators that want to shatter the reefs.

You've also learned to use the Torvicium to take the material of the crystal reefs into yourself, constructing four "legs" under your bodies. These stick to the reefs magnetically (thanks to the PoC's influence) but you're also able to leave the reefs for a short time and use them to swim and explore your environment. Using these new legs you're able to swim further upward, finding untouched ley lines free of Krysmite interference.

You've created a new subspecies of Gemcrab, a drone whose specific and only duty is to refine the Torvicium into what I'll call Intense Torvicium. This stuff can absorb magic from the water, strengthening your Reefs in the absence of ley lines! On the minus side, the water that is drained of magic also turns corrupt and spreads like a disease. The corrupt water kills biologicals and petrifies Gemcrabs into little chunks of inert, dead black quartz.

Finally, your hallmark. You've adapted a little node on the top of your crystal shells into a rose quartz beacon for magical energy. So not only can you reflect trace amounts of it into the Torvicium, but you can absorb magic cast at you from a focused source. These rose quartz nodes are tuned differently from the PoC, so you don't destroy your own home that way.

Ley Line Survival drops from 2d5 to 1d5 now that the Krysmites have mostly been dealt with.

As I said mutations might endanger the species now because of the power of the magic, I'm taking the one that rolled lowest and putting it in as a flaw. So while you have the PoCs as a strong source of magic, outside magic sources directed against you will endanger the reef as a whole if they're not flat out absorbed by the Rose Quartz Beacons.

Will you...

A: Focus your power into the Earth Shells, now that the Krysmites are few and far between up in this higher layer of water?
B: Focus on creating ecosystems of biologicals, using the "corrupt water" to extract inorganics from dead and dying creatures?
C: Focus on the Torvicium, modulating it so it cleanses the "corrupt" water as well as awakens the earth?
D: Focus on building reefs in this higher layer of water so you have a beachhead to jump off on your quest for the surface?
E: Evolve a larger size, and with it larger reefs?

[JbeJ275]

A, and D if we're voting for two

Put gripping digits on the end of our legs

[Tentreto]

C and D
For mutation, let's try strength

[GuesssWho]

B and C.

Mutation: Speed Increase

[Patdragon]

Lets grow em bigger and taller and have our own island atoll.

I vote D and E with D being the main choice if we are only suppose to vote on one though all of these seem good options this time round.

Risky to vote on a mutation now in case of a defect so lets keep it relatively simple this time and go with the power cosmic... I mean lets see if we can just have Single gemcrab piloted Golems

[lukitux]

D and E, if we only get to choose one I choose D. For the mutation, I want the ability to use our queens mind control to turn creatures from our ecosystem into workers.

[aberratio ictus]

C and E. Also, Intelligence.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Fell asleep early last night, plus I forgot super mutation last turn. So here it is, even if it's a little belated.

2.2 Billion Years

Survival Rate: 100 +4 (Super Mutation) -9 (Survival Drop) -10 (Natural 1) = 85
Ley Line Survival: 86% (Rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.7 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.3 Billion Years.

Ley Line Roll: 2

Roll off between C and E: 100 and 93

C: Focus on the Torvicium, modulating it so it cleanses the "corrupt" water as well as awakens the earth?: 80 (Very successful) [Survival drops by 4]
D: Focus on building reefs in this higher layer of water so you have a beachhead to jump off on your quest for the surface?: 11 (Unsuccessful) [Survival drops by 5]

Grippers at the end of legs: 36
Strength: 30
Speed Increase: 63
Single-Pilot Golems: Natural 1
Mind Control into Workers: 76
Intelligence: 31

First we begin with the super mutation I forgot from last turn/ Your Rose Quartz Beacons have become larger, more faceted, and leashed by a tendril on the top of your shells -- they've become an eye similar to a beholder's eye. To the eye, each PoC of each individual reef fluxxes with a variety of flashy colors and patterns, enabling you to identify which Gemcrabs hail from which reef. The tendril stretches maybe only about four inches or so, but the tendril itself is slowly being built up in both Torvicium (strengthening its makeup) and in crystal of the reefs.

You've remodulated the Torvicium to cleanse the corrupt water, leaving water as pure as if it came from the Elemental Plane of Water rather than the prime material plane. This is spreading to un-corrupt water naturally tainted by the usual plankton/bacterial waste/whatever as well. It's beginning to clean up the oceans something fierce, and is having an effect of driving away those creatures that dwell only in saltier waters (driving them deeper into the depths, leaving you with room to breathe).

The downside to the purity here is that the ley lines soak it up like sponges, rendering them as bright (to your new eye) as a lightbulb, and just as hot. It is VERY difficult to build a new reef up here because of it... on the other hand the purity has literally "fried" the Krysmites, extincting them (and locking your Ley Line survival at 86% for the rest of the stage).

The purity of the water has "changed" the nature of your awakened earth and has given the Earth Shells an actual sense of sentience or self-preservation. The Earth Shells don't flat out rebel against you, but when they're created they immediately sink into the depths rather than help out any further. It's not like you need their help now that the ley lines are "pure" and you'll have a lack of predators.

As you're continually headed for the surface, you do run into two larger critters in the incoming layer of water. The first looks like the Biting Pear of Salamanca (http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/The-Biting-Pear-of-Salamanca-29677500) except it has tendrils, some hooks on the end of the tendrils, and has the mouth on its bottom, which it constantly barfs from. The other potential troublemaker is a very large proto-crocodilian with fingers already on its front webbed hands and a spine that's more stretchy and squishy than a cat's.

The pear-thing looks like it might be interested in eating your crystals with that big mouth it's got. The proto-crocodilians on the other hand are ripping chunks off of your reefs with their hands and using them to sharpen their claws and teeth.

Will You...

A) Focus on your new eye, charging it with the power of Torvicium and of the PoCs?
B) Adapt to the "psychic heat" of the ley lines, and build your reefs around it?
C) Become friendly or hostile to one of the two new critters (say which)
D) Use the frequency tuner of Torvicium to chase off the two newcomers?
E) Focus on strengthening what reefs you have, using what Torvicium you've got?

[Patdragon]

Vote A to evolve actual mutations while we still can as a voting option and if a second vote option i'll go for C - befriend Croc

As for a mutation lest just grow a bit larger with a size increase

[Tentreto]

I think we can still choose 2 from now on, right?

Anyway, lets go A and B, and lets try strength again.

[GuesssWho]

B and C--befriend the crocodilians.

Mutation: Shell Communication.

[Patdragon]

Mutation: Shell Communication.

We just need some string to connect them.

[JbeJ275]

A,B.

Adding a poison to our crystals

[neriractor]

B and D, and I suggest we evolve some sort of mind control power, to deal with annoying creatures while giving us a workforce.

[GuesssWho]

We just need some string to connect them.

LOL Not like that

[lukitux]

A and B. Since we are getting beholder-y I suggest eye rays.

[Aegis J Hyena]

It would really help if I'd remember to post. Guessswho -- poke me on Steam if you don't see a post late at night... I don't want you guys to fall TOO far behind the Psypers. They're two turns ahead of you.

2.3 Billion Years

Survival: Removed because of Mind Control defending the reefs
Ley Line Survival: 86% (Locked, rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.7 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation this turn and at 2.8 Billion Years.

Size Increase: 97 (Critical!)
Strength: 16
Shell Communication: 12
Poison: 7 (Flaw)
Mind Control: 92 (Success!)
Eye Rays: 18

A) Focus on your new eye, charging it with the power of Torvicium and of the PoCs?: 16 (Unsuccessful) [Survival drops by 10)
B) Adapt to the "psychic heat" of the ley lines, and build your reefs around it?: 78 (Very Successful) [Survival drops by 2)

We begin with your magic-induced mutation. You've adapted to have tiny "spinnerets" on the bottoms of your new stilt-feet, and these can "spin" Torvicium. When you spin threads of the stuff in between the four legs it begins to resonate and form into a tiny ball of light that seems anchored to you. Using your electrical sensors you are able to control how this "anchor" moves, and you're able to use this as a "hook" to float literally upside down over the tops of your reefs as the ball of light is equidistant from all four of your feet. (the wild surge for the mutation was "caster now is levitating upside down permanently").

Using this you're able to float around and scout your environment, and when needs require you're able to "yank" yourself back to the PoC's general area as these balls of light are somehow connected to them by tiny strands of Torvicium reinforced by crystal reef. This has created a new class of Gemcrabs... the Lures. Send out a few scouts to watch the crocs or other interesting creatures, yank them back if something "interesting" happens. While you don't do this for food because you're inorganic now, you do enrich the local ecospheres with new creatures occasionally.

You've mutated twice this turn, and since both are above 90 you get to keep 'em. The first is a size increase to the size of five fists end to end. Larger size means larger reefs, including ones that specifically entrap explorers with crystalline traps -- causing the local ecosystems to explode in diversity. Your shells curl up and around in a "C" shape now, like a scorpion with its tail raised in attack mode. This new size increase is keeping several predators off of you now, including a kind of fish that shotguns sound from three holes in its face. The second mutation is mental control of the more simple minds around you, but you find that only the Queen has any skill in wielding such power.

Still, now you have control of the creatures around you to help defend the Reefs, all but securing your survival to at least the next stage; I'll remove the survival roll (though things are still dependent on if the ley lines survive up here).

The major downside is that you diverted so many resources towards building size and mental power, that you've become weak to organics... poison in particular. Fortunately nothing down here is poisonous and most things wouldn't think of attempting to use poison on something that's inorganic. You've developed a "toxin sac" at the base of your brains that contains wastes your bodies can't filter out. Introduction of organic poison causes this sac to rupture, causing the Gemcrab in question to swell up as the poisons interfere with its circulation. Then the Gemcrab audibly goes explodey into smithereens.

You're not really able to focus power into your eye-lens as all your power went into size increases. On the other hand you've adapted to the psychic heat of the ley lines and don't suffer as much -- you've created a heat-resistant variety of crystal (which only the Queens can spin from their feet) that coats the ley lines, protecting your tender footsies from damage. The heat does seem to influence how powerful your PoCs are (more heat = more power = less defense = too much and you go boom).

The "biting pear" creatures have ignored you and have headed toward the surface. The crocs are all but gone, having rushed the surface and will likely make it before anyone else does.

Will You...

A) Focus on your Queens to greater enhance them?
B) Try to focus the ley line heat into another "tower" of crystal so it can be bled off before it overwhelms your PoCs?
C) Focus on purifying the waters even more, turning the ocean to a place of "purity"?
D) Send out a few Lures to see what else is out there waiting?
E) Adapt your crystalline shells in some form of offense or defense (say which) in case something DOES come along you can't deal with?

(I don't have the time to go back and make a list of every mutation you've gotten -- if someone could put together a list starting from the beginning and PM it to me, it'd be much appreciated and it'd keep me consistent.)

[Tentreto]

Lets go B and D

We came very close to having a lot of flaws this round. Lets utterly ignore that and try another mutation.

I'll go for spinning new ley lines, and hope it doesn't bomb.

[aberratio ictus]

A, C and broken record: Intelligence. Maybe with more intelligence, other Gemcrabs can use our mind control, too.

[neriractor]

B and C I think the working castes should evolve some of the queen´s powers, if more gemcrabs can do it the loss of a queen shouldn´t be too painful and the overall strength of the hive should grow.

[JbeJ275]

B C

Move towards the surface

[lukitux]

A and B. Oxygen air breathing, for surface purposes.

[Patdragon]

Almost missed this one so votes for B and E-offense

As for a mutation lets try again with adapting our eye with the Torvicium and of the PoCs.

[GuesssWho]

A and B. Oxygen breathing, for surface purposes.
You mean air breathing, right? Fish still use oxygen.

B and D. Mutation: temporal acceleration, to catch up with the other side.

Also, are the crocodile things from the goblins forum?

[Patdragon]

Mutations in Chronological Order:
Absorbing Water: Evolved to gather energy from the very waters, relying on a jet of water both to confuse its enemies as well as serve as an escape route.

Electrozapping Water: You've created a crystalline lattice from absorption of the crystals, and this lattice is beginning to generate electricity. This in turn produces oxygen, allowing you to expand population that much faster. You are also able to poison enemies who are allergic to oxygen or overload others by generating too much for them to handle.

Burrowing: Two "burrowing" tendrils that dig into the crystals they feed on, enabling them to become one with the crystal. Their limpet shape shifts to be a teardrop shape, with both "burrowing" tendrils close to the point of the teardrop. This burrowing has enabled them to feed on the strongest point of the crystal, "drying" the crystal out and turning it as dark as the waters around them. When other bacteria come up to the burrow "opening", they are are ZAPPED by electrocution (from the first tendril) and injection of stored oxygen (from the second), killing the target.

Bait Pieces: Bait and decoy tactics. By coloring the blackish points of your crystal homes, you're able to break brittle pieces off and make it seem like they're loose outside the "shell" and unprotected. Anywhere from six to twelve decoys are on any one crystal at a time, and it's having a noticable effect.

Toxin Resistance: The first is resistance to the LSD that U. Klixstem Faltoni seems to be spewing everywhere; when U. Klixstem Faltoni comes along, you turtle up into your crystals and hide.

Concealment (Chameleon colorshifting): Color our crystals to match the environment. This latter color-shifting makes it seem like the crystals are empty.

Web Withdrawl:Has learned to withdraw its salt webs, deconstructing the atoms in the blink of an eye and "suctioning" them into the crystal... along with anything that happens to be dried and dessicated / attached to it. The salt provides protection and a slight bit of regained material costs, but it takes forever to rebuild the webs on your own

Crystalizing Defense: Have strengthened your crystalline homes. When X. Klixstem Faltoni blinks into their crystals to strike, D. Shloopi Dorfis releases a chemical that triggers the crystals themselves to react and grow bits of themselves in all directions to fill the empty space. These crystalline spikes "pop" the heat pockets, and spray superheated water against the crystals and away from the bacteria. While it kills X. Klixstem Faltoni in the process, the superheated water dissolves the crystals, exposing openings.

Invisibility: You've learned to "fade from the senses of other bacteria", however this cannot be accomplished in tandem with your crystal-building enzymes (the crystals plus your radiation aura give you away). You might need to pick one or the other at the billion year mark. In other news the amount of natural crystals in this higher layer is woefully tiny.

Natural Armor: ???The last thing that is happening is the radiation aura you've evolved is starting to harden and deaden you -- you're gradually becoming an *inorganic* bacteria, meaning that you will not be considered prey by meat or plant eaters. By 1.5 Billion Years however, the radiation aura will be evolved out. ???

Crystal Photosynthesis: You've learned to extract power from the glow of the crystals themselves. The more that connect to each other, the more glow is generated, which makes you more powerful, which allows more crystals to grow, etc. However other species are starting to either gnaw at the crystals or try to ingest inorganic material... including you.
-------------------------------- End of 1,Billion years ------------------------

Rock Nets: ??You've riddled your reefs (mostly on the undersides where the mites are) with rock traps just as sharp as the crystal traps you've been setting up. Your electrical tendrils have grown sharper as they've been used in tandem with the claw to "sharpen" the rocks, allowing your electrical tendrils to function as spears. When the Hammerlancers assault from the underside's shadow, they're knocked off course (and often times senseless) by the rocks... and predators looking for them start to gather under your reefs, looking for food.???

??Poison Resistance??:

Lightning Gun: You've evolved your "inorganic sniffer" to function as both sniffer and as a battery. The tendrils next to the sniffer are gathering electricity via kinetic energy from the current, and when the sniffer brushes against predators or a threat, ZZZAP. You can also blow apart reefs where needed or blast a particularly heavy cluster of Krysmites this way.

Symbiosis with Krysmites: Then, one of you geniuses manages to coat themselves completely in the liquid crystal given off by the Krysmites as a quick disguise. As long as there's that liquid crystal layer on you, the Krysmites can't sense beyond it and see you as just another mite. You're able to adapt it so that you are now in symbiosis with the mites, and can harvest their liquid crystal as needed without being attacked. This gives you a desperately-needed population increase in the wake of all the severed crystal reefs.

??Speed up Inorganic-osity??:
-------------------------------------------End off 2,billion years ------------------
Earth Golems:
Reef Legs:
Size Increase:
Mind Control:


POC mutations:
Powers based on Leyline Flavor
Better Chance of Positive Mutations
Superheat Immunity
Sea Control
Mind Control Magic


Flaws - Earth shells gain sentience and left. Toxic sack an base of brain

Super mutations

Grasping Limb: Designed a two-pronged "grasping pincer" appendage. They alter the crystals to have three holes instead of two for their appendages; one for the webs when they're formed (and which will be used for catching larger prey), one for the pincer, and one for its electrocution tendril. All the while it's giving off oxygen in the background as waste, bubbling up from the back from a waste-hole unless they draw it back in for their frontal bubble shield.

??Pincer??: The pincer you've had that changed to a tiny lobster-like claw has now become a seven-tendril manipulator on a main stem. The middle tendril is the sniffer; the rest are electrical sensors that literally have electricity arcing between them, giving off a faint hum. You still have the "antennae" too in order to sense your environment.

Eye??: First we begin with the super mutation I forgot from last turn/ Your Rose Quartz Beacons have become larger, more faceted, and leashed by a tendril on the top of your shells -- they've become an eye similar to a beholder's eye. To the eye, each PoC of each individual reef fluxxes with a variety of flashy colors and patterns, enabling you to identify which Gemcrabs hail from which reef. The tendril stretches maybe only about four inches or so, but the tendril itself is slowly being built up in both Torvicium (strengthening its makeup) and in crystal of the reefs.

Hallmarks-

1.1B -Earth Animation: The longer your species thrives, the greater your ability to manipulate the earth -- and this includes your crystal homes. Now you just need a source of earth, as nothing currently uses earth in its makeup. Perhaps it's time to weave the ley lines into the ocean mountains?

Magic induced mutation?

This is what i've scanned through at very late o'clock and some bits weren't as clear as I first thought, Tried to find the descriptive part at the beginning and more recent stuff we should be able to remember. They may be things we evolved that were votig options as well but these (I think) are all our mutation rolls, super mutations, Hallmarks and flaws. Some mutations we evolved out of already though and i'm too tired to work that part out. Hope this helps Aegis.

TLDR

Mutations- (Absorbing Water), (Electrozapping Water), (Burrowing), (Bait Pieces), (Toxin Resistance)(Concealment (Chameleon colorshifting)), (Web Withdrawl), (Crystalizing Defense), (Invisibility), (Natural Armor), (Crystal Photosynthesis), (Rock Nets), (Poison Resistance), (Lightning Gun), (Symbiosis with Krysmites), (Speed up Inorganic-osity), (Powers based on Leyline Flavor*), (Better Chance of Positive Mutations*), (Superheat Immunity*), (Sea Control*), (Mind Control Magic*), (Earth Golems), (Reef Legs), (Size Increase), (Mind Control).

Super mutations - (Grasping Limb), (Pincer?), (Eye?)
Hallmarks - (Earth Animation), (Magic induced mutation)

*= POC mutations:

[Patdragon]

A and B. Oxygen air breathing, for surface purposes.


Do we even need to breathe now we are in organic?

[Aegis J Hyena]

Next post delayed. Mega asthma attack. Might need to go to the hospital since I don't seem to be recovering via inhaler.

Call it monday. Next post tomorrow (sunday) -- just got back from the hospital. They treated it, I went home after a 4 hour wait.

[Tentreto]

Good to hear that you are ok after that.

[Aegis J Hyena]

As a spoiler to tide people over, the Psypers (the redditors) got violent against the crystal reefs (your PoCs are messing with their heads) and rolled a 90-some on their efforts to go aggressive. If that keeps up, inorganic or not you might be in trouble. Heh.

[Patdragon]

And they're doing it from the future..those sneaky gits!

[Aegis J Hyena]

We came very close to having a lot of flaws this round. Lets utterly ignore that and try another mutation.

Only the lowest roll will be a Flaw.

Post on the way. Been offset iwth other things these days so chances are updates will be very late at night into the morning.

Edit: It bombed.

[Aegis J Hyena]

2.4 Billion Years

Ley Line Survival: 86% (Locked, rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.7 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.8 Billion Years.

B) Try to focus the ley line heat into another "tower" of crystal so it can be bled off before it overwhelms your PoCs?: 72 (Very Successful)

C) Focus on purifying the waters even more, turning the ocean to a place of "purity"?: 43 (Somewhat Successful)

Spinning New Ley Lines: 8 (Flaw)
Intelligence: 26
Queen-Worker Evolution: 47
Rush to the Surface: 20
Air Breathing: 12
Adapting the Eye: 65
Temporal Acceleration: 86 (when the psypers breach the surface I'll give an option to catch up; had this succeeded it would have been Natural Haste)

The good news is that the crocs are gone and the "biting pears" (the Psypers of Reddit) have gone with them and have ignored what super-large reefs have survived. The bad news is that in trying to evolve to spin new ley lines by withdrawing power from the PoCs, you have learned that magical energy into the PoCs is a one-way trip -- instead, you ended up reversing the polarity. The little ball of light anchor has the ability to -sever- Ley Lines, flooding the local area with pure magical energy.

Where the magic energy encounters water, crystal, or what have you, the energy takes the shape of the trigger. You've ended up giving birth to exceptionally powerful water elementals (those of you who have read Digger, I have one word for you. Shadowchild.) that are now policing the waters and destroying anything that isn't magical in origin, purified water in general, or made up of water as they are.

On the plus side, it's turned your crystal reefs (and you) mirror-shiny, reflecting the inner workings like a mirrored maze and further confusing prey that hides there (allowing predators to strike with greater accuracy, strengthening the ecosystem even more) and has imbued you with a portion of the world's elemental power (the water element, so when you hit intelligence you'll be natural water-casters).

On the minus side the heat from your reefs... from your Queens, PoCs... and sometimes even the Ley Lines in general... is attracting the elementals like magnets to metal -- they're destroying your earthen creations when you're able to move dirt around, they're smashing the brightest and most powerful PoCs left and right, and it is only after you begin building a crystal tower (always on the eastern edge of a reef) into a heat-bleeder do they stop wrecking things and focus on the energy coming out of the bleeder.

Only the strongest reefs have survived, but there are very few reefs left! Those that still exist extend for miles in all directions as several different reefs nearly intersecting the same spaces. All are intertwined with the ley lines of the world and while the brightest PoCs have been destroyed by the elementals, mediocre ones still have enough power to let you live in peace on the reefs.

The waters are now safe and pristine. Most of those creatures who need impurities to survive have fled deeper into the oceans. Those who haven't are swiftly dealt with by the water elementals. The smallest of the elementals are chasing both the crocs and the biting pears that gave you trouble a couple turns ago.

Bad news: BIG Krysmites evolved for battle and as large as / encompassing the width of a ley line are incoming, attracted by the huge magical energy release into the oceans.

Will You...

A) Focus on the Water Elementals, trying to turn a disadvantage to an advantage?
B) Attempt to patch up the ley lines somehow so that both the Krysmites GO THE HELL AWAY and you get more power?
C) Attempt to merge multiple Crystal Reefs into a massive crystal structure too large to be destroyed?
D) Try to route the leaking magical energy into your PoCs? That'll heat them up, but also match the "magic frequency" of the elementals...
E) Try to catch or deal with the other "creatures" your magical energy release/leakage created? There's a lot more than just Elementals out here...

[GuesssWho]

Oh ****, Shadowchild . . .

A and B. See if we can befriend the water babies.

[JbeJ275]

A, E
Acid resistance

[Tentreto]

You know, I should probably keep my rampant paranoia, seeing as it was useful last game.
A and B, and strength

[aberratio ictus]

A, B, intelligence :smalltongue:

[lukitux]

C and A, and reefs that can move upwards along the ley lines. Why walk and swim when you can levitate.

[Patdragon]

I'm going to vote C and E because (I like wasting my votes) I think we should meld all the reefs together into a giant super reef and then we attempt to animate it and just move it to different leylines and places like a giant walking mountain (or flying would be cool too.). And a vote for E will get us some new unexpected critters that just might help us out.

My vote mutation is Animate reefs -we've had practice with golems now time for the big things

[Aegis J Hyena]

This one was completely half-assed, but when you're inorganic, you really don't have many enemies and I thought "this is getting boring, lucky it's almost the end of the stage".

2.5 Billion Years

Ley Line Survival: 86% (Locked, rolls at 2.5 and 2.7 Billion Years; extinction if both fail)
Ley Line Survival Roll: 35 (Success)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.7 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.8 Billion Years.
Breach the surface at 2.8 Billion Years (if you don't choose to next turn).

Acid Resistance: 64
Strength: 57 (lowest rolled, thus flaw)
Intelligence: 73
Moving the Reefs along the Ley Lines: 78
Animation of the Reefs: 62

A) Focus on the Water Elementals, trying to turn a disadvantage to an advantage?: 10 (Unsuccessful)

B) Attempt to patch up the ley lines somehow so that both the Krysmites GO THE HELL AWAY and you get more power?: 88 (Extremely Successful)

Well, that was easy. Because you were responsible for the breaking of the ley lines, you knew their workings instinctively. you were able to fix them by spinning Torvicium and intermixing it with the new "mirror-smooth" crystal of your homes. This got the lines patched up in short order, and no more of the water elementals were spawned. With the lines patched the Krysmites were blocked (you spun "knots" in the lines to cut them off) and you were also able to move closer to the surface.

The patching of the lines is just that however, a patch. You can't actively spin new ley lines.

The water elementals have completely ignored your attempts at communication (by sparking your electrical tendrils or feeler), and have pretended like you no longer exist to them. They've stopped thrashing your reefs, and have mostly dissipated into the waters to become one with them. With the ley lines patched they have no reason to exist on this plane. It does charge the water with a thick elemental "atmosphere" -- the water of this planet is going to be hyper receptive to magical effects and your PoCs will be natural storehouses of that energy.

The power you've gained as a result of this atmosphere has come at a cost. Living in this layer of purified water is taking a toll on your internal structure. You're so "pure" now that you've been exposed to the purified waters and water elementals, that while you're hard as a, well, crystal... that crystal is now fragile along certain planes and dimensions. The shells of your outer body are WEAK now... though you have learned to molt stronger shells the longer the Gemcrabs live. Even then, the strongest of your shells, if dried out, would crumble to powder in one's hand. If it gets much worse, you will be limited to the water, or beachfront property.

Other than that it's been a VERY boring 100,000,000 years -- organic predators and prey ignore you and you sort of have nothing to worry about now that your reefs are being left alone.

Will You...

A) Focus on regaining strength in your shells for defense despite this layer's fragility?
B) Focus on breaching the surface (which you will do next turn if this action is chosen, lining you up with the Psypers of Reddit)?
C) Try and do something further with this thick "elemental atmosphere"?
D) Build crystal reefs off the "knots" in the Ley Lines, as hubs for your civilization?
E) Dive into a deeper layer of water so the shells of your Gemcrabs are re-strengthened?

[GuesssWho]

B and C.

Mutation: Shell blades. If our shells break along planes then some of the shards are going to be nasty sharp. We should find a way to weaponize that.

[JbeJ275]

A, B Burrowing via Geomatic magic

[Tentreto]

A, B

I really do tempt fate too much...

Lets try danger sense.

[Patdragon]

Votes for A and D because we need stronger shells again before we dry out on the surface and i still what some giant walking reef castles and building off the knots might do this. ;)

Mutation - Animate reefs!

[lukitux]

B and D. I want To be able to store water in our reefs. Soft shells don't matter if we never leave the reef. We can have our mindcontrolled drones bring water, use our ley lines to purify it, and fill the reefs with it.

[neriractor]

A and D, and the ability to ser an arbitrarily large amount of colors, 10-20 would be good.

[aberratio ictus]

A, D, guess what, intelligence.

[Aegis J Hyena]

2.6 Billion Years

Ley Line Survival: 86% (Locked, roll at 2.7 Billion Years for population drop)

Next Super Mutation to come at 2.7 Billion Years.
Magic-Induced Mutation at 2.8 Billion Years.
Breach the surface at 2.8 Billion Years (when you breach I'll move you to line up with the Psypers)

Shell Blades: 47
Burrowing: 18 (flaw)
Danger Sense: 78
Reef Animation: 58
Water Storage: 48
Color Eyes: 56
Intelligence: 66

Roll off between B and D: 3 and 51

A) Focus on regaining strength in your shells for defense despite this layer's fragility?: 51 (Somewhat Successful)

D) Build crystal reefs off the "knots" in the Ley Lines, as hubs for your civilization?: 53 (Somewhat Successful)

The "softness" of your shells has taken things up a notch. They've grown softer and softer to the point that burrowing is no longer an option, and you can't dig through the crystal once it's "in place" after it's first placed. The crystal has seemingly "taken" your original hardness and applied it to itself -- the crystal is getting harder, and harder, and harder. What crystal reefs are left cannot be broken by mortal physical force. Pure magic on the other hand, such a force effects (or water/ice based spells) will cleave your reefs in pieces and often leave you stranded.

Some things in the ocean are slowly adapting to eat inorganic waste. This mostly is restricted to your molted shells (when you don't meld them with the reefs). It allows for a couple of symbiotic relationships with various predators, but if they turn greedy or hungrier you might be in a little bit of trouble.

Your molted shells meld with the crystal reefs all over the place, but the action of the waves wears them down to little "pockets" or "pouches" in which algae and bacteria and such seem to thrive in. This has attracted a species of glow worm that is incredibly poisonous, and whose bioluminesence is acidic to the ley lines inside your reefs. The glow worms don't seem to predatorize your reefs, but if they spot your "pockets", then they will nest in them and turn the "pockets" slowly into "craters" that catch the sunlight and refract it everywhere.

You've begun building reefs using the "knots" as a jumping off point for starting major "convocations" of Gemcrabs. These knot-hubs serve to organize the Gemcrabs by caste (one series of chambers for drones, others for workers, one for the queen, etc). Most of the time these knots are the furthest from the PoCs as possible, to avoid further disintegration of your shells.

You -have- worked to strengthen them over time again, but the only thing you've managed is to A) lengthen its range to twice what it was, and B) turn your eye tendril into a sort of crystalline mace you can use to bludgeon things. This "mace" is the hardest part of you, and can easily leave a dent in softer creatures or shatter "rival" Gemcrabs that hop onto your reefs. On top of that, your tendril-eye has specialized a faceted layer of crystal such that you can not only see invisibility (the ley lines) but also see into another dimension entirely -- the Etherial plane.


Will You...

A) Kill off the glow worms so as not to risk further damage to the reefs? Physical attacks won't dent your reefs, but the worms' acid will...
B) Nurture the glow worms so that their acidic bio-lights "dig" tunnels through the crystal since you no longer can?
C) Grow spikes around your eye to make your crystalline mace go from bludgeoning to piercing and thus more dangerous?
D) Go deeper into the water, forgetting about the surface for the moment, so you can strengthen your shells much easier?
E) Adapt the magical energy of the ley lines to become stored in the tendril connecting the eye (so anything touches it and it gets a pretty hefty zap)?

[GuesssWho]

B and C

Mutation: Acid immunity

[Patdragon]

Going to go with B and E We need our reefs to have tunnels otherwise where do we escape to. If we can partner up with the glow worms all the better.

I'd prefer to have a magical zapping eye than a spike eye for the simple fact we are hitting things with our visual senors. If we hit something to hard then whoops we can't see as well.

I was going to try one last time for Animate reefs! but going to save that for one of the next turns for a super mutation or magical one. This turn as we have the dreaded fail chance coming up i feel if the animate reefs was the flaw then well...boom!

Mutation- I'll go with the intelligence increase this turn to give who ever else would vote for it a different option ;)

[Tentreto]

I will go for A and B.

Why?

So we can control the population of glow worms, and thus not have them bring any surprises.

Mutation wise, lets go for dimension seeing, looking through into multiple planes.

[neriractor]

B and C we should develop a sort of innate mage armor to make up for our soft shells.

[JbeJ275]

I keep getting flaws, let's choose something minor, sense of smell

[Aegis J Hyena]

It took me two hours to just finish the 3 Billion years for the Reddit group. I'm tired, so no post tonight.

Tomorrow, I'll line up the timelines and put you at 3.1 Billion because I need to keep things straight. Lots of things will change... so sit tight.

[lukitux]

A and E, for my mutation I suggest cooperation between queens.

[Patdragon]

Ok will hold tight and look forwards to the next update. Hopefully we'll get some Dm decided bonus/flaws to catch up with the time sink.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Next post will be late late late tonight or if I get tired and run out of time, tomorrow morning when I wake up -- my D&D game I DM is in 2 hours and I'm prepping that, then I have a lot of unavoidable other bull**** that I can't get around (and that's including the reddit post). You'll be brought in line with the Psypers timeline wise, get some new land based mutations, an appearance change, and so on.

Edit: Tomorrow morning. Oy. Too much ****. Hang tight...

Edit number 2: Got up at 1 PM, couldn't force myself to do the update and if I did it'd be third-assed much less half-assed. I don't think I have the mental bandwidth to work two games at once much less the three that I had planned originally, as things and stories get complicated once sentience is reached. I'm going to have to call it a loss, folks. Gotta save my sanity and effort for the Reddit, which was my original intention. Go vote there instead; I'll keep the GemCrabs as something they'll interact with later.