Natural Resources Hex Sign-Ups

[powersthatbe]

As your characters team up to survey the wilderness of the smuggler's moon, please comment under the week's toplevels below to indicate which hexes you're exploring and who'll you'll be exploring them with. In the body of your comment, please list any relevant skills or abilities that will help you search faster, more accurately, or more thoroughly, such as Control Panel, Questing Sense, Survivalism, etc.



As a note: thanks to the expedition's hover vehicles, you can pick any hex on the map as your starting hex and any subsequent hexes chosen can be anywhere on the map--not necessarily contiguous to your first hex.

Comments

Cycle One

[powersthatbe]

Please make separate threads for each group working together. Remember, both the 'day' and the 'night' period of each cycle last four earth standard days, with the cycle itself lasting eight.

Re: Cycle One

[bite_the_hand]

Eren, Naoki, and Seifer are exploring the hex at row 4 and between columns D and E - the one dominated by the large crescent-shaped bend in the river.

As a member of the Survey Corps, Eren has military level training in survivalism, including exploring new areas, establishing bases, and he knows how to do it all with low-tech methods. He does also have the needed combo of Liminal Manipulation II and Liminal Power to be able to make supplies, but will try to avoid resorting to that unless there's an actual emergency. He also has Assist if one of the others' abilities can get a boost from that without it being too obvious.

[leftbehindagain]

Oh right I need to check in with Naoki's skill assortment.

*everything network, practically, including Psychic Delegate if it for some reason looks necessary/beneficial to put an infiltrator on the line
*Control Panel
*Assist
*Interface, though he's non in a particular hurry to stick his brain in random shit
*Mythobiology and Stellar Education (general with a slight lean toward astronomy, there)
*Water elementalism
*Oracle powers, if Growth would be of particular note/use in a forest (it could also be too much information to easily practice)
*a Slammer Stack with assorted buff pogs in
*Forest Folk Brewery, Alchemy, and a decent amount of ingredient-mixing imagination
*...also if there are any notes about the expedition around, he could doodle on them and absorb all the info immediately?

[powersthatbii]

If you want to risk getting caught by Yuri and Germaine by doodling on their paperwork and possibly getting yelled at, be my guest, my dude.

[leftbehindagain]

He probably won't - I don't think he's realised he can still do that, yet. (And he's going to be very annoyed when he does catch on, the nerd.)

Re: Cycle One

[powersthatbii]

OKAY SO. There's actually what looks like a series of cairns of river stones that have been placed at the edge of the river. They aren't uniformly spaced from each other, but they do look to have been deliberately placed there. The stones seem to have been selected for their aesthetic purposes. They are non-sentient. If crushed into powder and mixed with enough water to give a syrup-like consistency, they would actually make a decent meal for a Hecatite.

They'll be able to find and catalogue dozens of new species of plants and fungi. One species of fungi is poisonous to humans, but perfectly fine for Gorgons to eat. There's a species of flowering berry bush growing outside the shade of the trees where the crushed buries can be fermented for alcohol. Some of the root vegetables could also probably be turned into alcohol, but might not be so pleasant on their own. Naoki can attempt to mix in other plants they've found.

The small animals of this planet exhibit bilateral symmetry but have three sets of limbs instead of the two that earth animals usually have. They would have likely encountered a kind of flying small mammal that looks like a mix of squirrels and bats.

Re: Cycle One

[reallymean]

Allura and Cassandra will be exploring hex A-2.

Allura's Infiltrating as one of the Conditioned; Somatic and Sensory Conditioning might be useful for aquatic exploration and/or detecting any lurking water monsters or other oddities.

[fearinahandfulof]

Cassandra also has Sensory and Somatic Conditioning, as well as Unstoppable Force, Flash Precognition (in case of ambush) and Wilderness Survival training (and a Mermaid totem transformation and the ability to shift that at will, but that might be trickier to explain to Allura). She has Interface, but she might not get as much out of it as another Traveler would.

Re: Cycle One

[powersthatbii]

OH HEY, SPEAKING OF WATER MONSTERS THIS LAKE HAS THEM. YOU'RE WELCOME.

Specifically, among the various fish-like animals and arthropod-like animals that they'll be able to find in the lake--and there's probably close to a dozen species of "fish" in that lake that haven't been catalogued yet, plus some amphibians, all of which have bilateral symetry and three sets of limbs--there's also...

Well, it's an ugly, giant, carnivorous, green water monster with face only a mother could love. It's got a body that's as much eel-like as fish-like and it's about the size of a truck. There's actually a small population of them in the lake that Cassandra and Allura are investigating. You guys can choose to have a fight with one. With conditioned-level and Clayborne-level fighting, they should be able to take it down and bring it back to the base.

Sadly, it is not tasty at all to humans.

Re: Cycle One

[verdeleonessa]

Infiltrated trio of Pidge, Kit (Dakki) and Neil (Matt) will be exploring E-1! Pidge and Kit are synthetics while Neil is a Gorgon. Kit, however, has been modified to be an outdoors lumberjack bot.

Re: Cycle One

[powersthatbii]

A lot of the trees are similar to the ones nearby Big Base N, although many of them are noticeably younger. There's one or two older ones that are noticeably dead. If Kit/Dakki fells one of them, she'll see evidence in the tree rings that there was a wildfire a couple centuries ago.

There is a large number of insects-like animals that have yet to be categorized. Many of them are radially symetrical, but some exibit bilateral symmetry. Those that do generally have upwards of five sets of limbs.

There are also a variety of wood-dwelling mammal-like animals, many of which haven't been catalogued yet. They exhibit bilateral symmetry and for the most part have three sets of legs. Not only are there the bat-squirrel type animals that Naoki, Eren, and Seifer will encounter, but there's also tree-dwelling ones that have arms about as long and dexterous as a sloth, but have faces that look a lot more like weasels do, only with prehensile trunks like elephants. They seem to enjoy eating the fungi that grows on the sides of the trees.

One of them might try to steal Neil/Matt's possessions while he's sleeping and the other two are welcome to catch it in the act. It has absolutely no clue what to do with any of it, but will try to swallow anything that will fit in its mouth.

[seestheworld]

Minako and Koromaru will be checking out F7. Minako has:

* A large number of Liminal skills including Liminal Barrier, Teleportation III, Liminal Tether, and Remote Portals, and she should be picking up Liminal Buoyancy this month as well (she has a taught thread going in the intro liminal)
* Control Panel, Interface, Sift, and her beam naginata from the Grid
* Champion magic for sealing away obstacles and/or hazards
* Personas for combat and healing
* Eagle Vision
* Lightning Age Technology and Innovation (Alchemy)
* Forest Folk Brewery
* Perpetual Creative Magic and cooking skills, for magically enhanced food

She's also got the Liminal Manipulation II/Liminal Power combo, so she can brute-force her way through the current Liminal lockdown.

Koromaru, meanwhile, is a Very Intelligent Dog with sharp teeth, a Persona, and the ability to access the network. And probably a knife for fighting?

[powersthatbii]

Awesome. So! Inside F7 and in particular around and on the island that's in the center of the hex, there's... well, they look like tardigrades with faces. They're light blue and trail water-weeds around them, some of which have shells or rocks tied. They seem to live in an under-water cave system inside the island. They are mostly aquatic, but can leave the water for some periods of time before they have to return. They're about the same size as Koro.

When Minako contacts Yuri and Germaine, she'll find that some of the teams made just out of people native to this world have happened upon creatures like in other hexes--solo or in small groups--and in those cases they seemed to be swimming in a migratory fashion up or downriver or to retrieve something from one of the other lakes. It's assumed that they're on an ape level of intelligence by those people native to the Jaunt world.

However, if Minako takes time to listen to the not-tardigrades amongst themselves, it will turn out that they have a language and are sentient! Albeit with a very much stone-age civilization.

Cycle Two

[powersthatbe]

Please make separate threads for each group working together. Remember, both the 'day' and the 'night' period of each cycle last four earth standard days, with the cycle itself lasting eight.

Re: Cycle Two

[reallymean]

Allura, Cassandra, and possibly Bernkastel are exploring A3 in Cycle 2.

Re: Cycle Two

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Confirming Bern. She’s going to use Oracle of Probability powers to search.

Re: Cycle Two

[powersthatbii]

She'll be able to zero in on where they're most likely to encounter another lake creature, then, and where they'll just find more small amphibians, arthropods, and fish.

She'll also be able to figure out things about the tardigrades-with-faces when they observe the hunting party reaching the lake.

[fearinahandfulof]

In addition to the skills mentioned in Cycle One, Cassandra's picked up a molecular blade and an electrified staff. She also has Immovable Object in addition to Unstoppable Force, which I'm not sure why I didn't mention last time. She's also got Liminal Barrier and Liminal Hook, but won't want to use them in front of Allura/Morganite unless she has to.

[powersthatbii]

As they keep exploring the lake area, they'll run into a few more of the giant, ugly-ass lake creatures--or, well, they'll have the opportunity to run into them. They can also observe them from afar. With enough observation, they'll be able to notice that there's two distinct... well, it's either sexes or sub-species to the lake creatures. One has faces a little more shaped like the upper one in this image, the other has ones shaped more like the lower ones.

Cassandra's new weapons will make hunting down another lake creature for dissection easier if they want to try it.

Mid-cycle (so, basically dusk) a small group of about a dozen of the large-tardigrades-with-faces will find their way to the lake via one of the rivers and streams that feeds into it, carrying what look like primitive spears. The three of them in the team can observe those tardigrades hunt and track the lake creatures. Depending how close Cassandra and Bern can get to the tardigrades, some of their conversation can be overheard and translated with Jaunt autotranslate.

(If you want to do a thread with them, contact Rika! She's NPCing them.)

[seestheworld]

Minako and Koromaru are headed back to F7, this time with Kanji in tow. As of last month's AC, Minako will have picked up Liminal Buoyancy and Extraliminal Gravity in addition to everything else, although she's probably not going to be using either one in front of the tardigrades unless she has to.

[truerevelation]

Incoming rock! Kanji/Kyan is bringing Kyan's speciality Pattern Recognition to attempts to understand what the heck the tardigrades are saying, plus a hoverbike and comms gear to talk with the base.
Kanji himself is most relevantly packing Control Panels and scanner Persona skills, though it's unlikely he'll be using either unless it's desperate. (Never mind that I'm not sure when I'm having him use Memory Immersion, oops.)

[powersthatbii]

Jaunt autotranslate will have Kanji understanding what the giant tardigrades with faces are saying without needing Pattern Recognition--but Kyan on his own could use the Pattern Recognition to figure out the most basic and essential vocabulary of the tardigrades so that when the Travelers are gone there will be people who can at least sort of get what they're saying.

Rika is NPCing the tardigrades, so if you need to thread with them, contact her!

Cycle Three

[powersthatbe]

Please make separate threads for each group working together. Remember, both the 'day' and the 'night' period of each cycle last four earth standard days, with the cycle itself lasting eight.

Cycle Four

[powersthatbe]

Please make separate threads for each group working together. Remember, both the 'day' and the 'night' period of each cycle last four earth standard days, with the cycle itself lasting eight.

Re: Cycle Four

[bite_the_hand]

Eren will be exploring D1. Right now he's the only PC exploring the sector, although there is a small chance that might change. Helpful Skills and abilities Eren possesses are the same as they were in week 1. EDIT: Pidge will also be coming to help explore the sector as well!

[seestheworld]

Minako, Koromaru, and Naoki will be in the half-hex at F8. Minako and Koromaru would also have been there for Week 3, assuming it counts the same as a full hex.

Cycle Five

[powersthatbe]

Please make separate threads for each group working together. Remember, both the 'day' and the 'night' period of each cycle last four earth standard days, with the cycle itself lasting eight.

[seestheworld]

For the last cycle, Minako, Koromaru, and Naoki will be in E9.

Naming Contest Submissions

[powersthatbe]

Noa Base aka Big Base N is planning to give their moon and the gas giant it orbits actual real names in the next few cycles to come! Your character can ICly submit names for either one here.

Re: Naming Contest Submissions

[tookashirototheknee]

Neil Garrett (aka Matt Holt) will submit Planet Bob for the name of the gas giant.

Re: Naming Contest Submissions

[ersatzknight]

Seifer's overlay is putting Pandemona and Tiamat in for either!

[cameracoded]

Prompto will submit Noctis for the moon and Gladiolus for the gas giant!

Re: Naming Contest Submissions

[bite_the_hand]

Eren's submission is that they should determine whether the tardigrade people have a language, and if they do they should get to name the moon and planet because this was their home first.