Chern, 64 AP, Port Kelpvine
Being a people of the deep jungle, the Starfolk historically never had much of a presence along the Trian coast. The Kelp Bay is the one exception to this, hosting the coastal town of Port Kelpvine. Until recently it had been little more than a fishing village, transporting the ocean's bounty up the Vine River to the inland cities. However with the recent colonisation of Al-Estria, ocean traffic had surged throughout the south Sundered Sea, and the humble port was busier than ever.
Not to mention the crack squads of choblin engineers that occasionally burst out of the ground, sopping wet and ranting about floods. At least now, with the Pact of Boa, they were no longer hostile.
It was at this picturesque yet tumultuous meeting of the jungle, the sea, and the deep oerth that Chern arrived, Vidlans in tow. They took to the surface, walking along a beach ridden with driftwood, and then down a jetty sprinkled with sand. The locals didn't pay them much mind, Chern masks had been common forever and flame dancers had been seen in the Al-Estria fleets. The Wiltwatcher strode to the end of the jetty, and peered into the water.
"Arrr... Beautiful, isn't it?" Vidlans said wistfully. "Ahoy! That yonder vessel, it be flying the colours o' Al-Sinai! Voyaging back to Ebonbark, I'd wager. Mayhaps it'll dock here for trade?"
"Well, Vidlans, it's been nice travelling with you," Chern lied, "but I have to dive down to the sea bed now, and it'd hate for you to harm yourself trying to follow me. Good bye."
"Arr hold on one second there, Chern-me-" Splash.
Chern toppled face first into the water, like a corpse sent to sleep with the fishes. He sank like a stone.
---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtlHziYJYUs
The avatar of the god of decay came to rest on the seabed, a good ten or so fathoms down. The sunlight was dim here in the sediment-rich water, but when he opened his eyes they shone forth like the lure of some abyssal predator. Chern drifted into a standing position, then began to walk down into the deep water, his strides long and loping through the dense forest of tangled mangrove roots and sea weed. Schools of fish darted out of his way, a few crabs twitched their feelers in his direction, a shark eyed him as it traced a suspicious circle. Though life teemed all around him, the water was blissfully quiet. Chern relished it.
As he got deeper, and the water grew colder and clearer, the titular kelp forest began to emerge. Towering pillars of greenery, swaying hypnotically with the current, founded atop a maze of stone buttes bristling with coral. Chern grooved as he wound his way between them, the ocean creatures seeming to pulse about him in time to a bay's breaths. Those that are wise among the mortals say that the forests are the lungs of the world, but even they are wrong. It is the breathing of the oceans that truly sustains life on this planet.
As much as Chern enjoyed the sights, he did have a job to do. He was looking for something, a glow in the sand, maybe bubbles. It did not take long for him to find.
At the bottom of an unusually deep trench in the kelp forest, Chern found a mass of luminous glowloam. Bubbles were rising from a crack along its edge. Chern leaped, sliding down the side of the trench in a billowing cloud of sand. He floated above the glowloam, inspecting it from beneath a halo of sand, deep sunlight, and darting fish.
It was obvious to him that this was one of the sources of the flooding. The choblins had misjudged their position underground, and had moulded the glowloam into the seabed. Only a small crack was visible at the moment, but a cave in and total flood of the coastal Chernway was inevitable without intervention. However, something else that Chern noticed was the glowloam's ill health. The fungus appeared shrivelled and dim. It had never meant to survive in the ocean. An adaptation was required.
Chern took a snapped strand of coral from the sand next to him, then pinched a spore of glowloam from deep within the intrusion in front of him. Then, he simply slotted the spore into the coral. Protected by the calcified structure, the glowloam could now thrive in this foreign environment, and continue to contribute to the advancement of the Chernway.
Spoiler: Action!
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Create a basic life-form (8 AP/4 DC)
+4 Decay, due to corrosive symbiosis between glowloam and gloral
+1 Sanitation, to make gloral able to produce filtered fresh water from its surrounding salt water
Chern creates a sub-aquatic variation of glowloam called gloral. This coral is, like glowloam, strongly bio-luminescent, and like glowloam it is incredibly hardy. Gloral can survive at even the deepest parts of the ocean, subsisting off of every bit of detritus they can filter out of the dark waters. They can grow in a wide range of temperatures and pressures, though not in freshwater (regular glowloam does just fine there).
A few additional properties will be introduced to gloral to make it suited to building an oceanic Chernway. Firstly, it will be translucent as well as glowing, allowing people to see through it into the wider ocean. Secondly, large clumps of gloral will be able to sink their roots deep into surrounding rock and glowloam, creating watertight seals beneath them. From these two properties, you can imagine the oceanic Chernway looking a bit like an elongated glass dome running along the bottom of the ocean. Skilled aquamancer shamans will be able to make even more complex structures, such as spires and arching tubes.
Chern set his sprig of gloral into the bubbling crack, his work done. He almost choked on a mouthful of seawater when he suddenly heard a gurgling roar behind him.
"Cheueueeeuurn-me-boouououoooy!"
Vidlans was suspended in the water above Chern, his flames replaced by roiling steam. Chern goggled up at him.
"How ure yuh doin heure?" he blubbed with indignant incredulity. Vidlans grinned.
"All un thu breeueueeathin Cap'n!"
---
Back at the surface, Chern wandered up onto the beach, his rags sopping wet. Vidlans followed, already dry and crackling merrily.
"That was fun!" he called out over the crash of the waves. "Vidlans be needin a drink though. Want to share a chum with ya chum Vidlans?"
"I have to go," Chern snapped back, "the south Chernway also needs gloral, I must bring it to them."
"What? You're walkin all the way there? Down the Chernway?"
"If necessary, yes. That is why it's there."
"But it's so booooring!"
"I was not put on this oerth to have fun."
"Sure ye were! I saw you inna water before, ye was taking a jolly stroll though the kelp!"
"You do not have to accompany me."
"Wait wait wait, just 'ear me out. I've an idea I think you'll like."
Chern looked back at him, one doubtful eyebrow raised. He stared as Vidlans paused for suspense.
"We'll sail!" he finally blurted out. "Take that Sinalese beauty I pointed out before! Not only'll it be more fun, but ye'll be able to seed yer gloral all along the north coast and Crimson Ocean. C'mon, I can get as passage sure as a monkey'll scratch its arse inna mornin. Whaddaya say?"
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