TLDunn213

Let us now take a look at the Nedrathul life cycle and compare it to what happens when an Illith dies. We are not going to bother with the Thulien life cycle here as I've covered it quite well enough elsewhere. But it is worth noting that a decaying Thulien, of any type will provide an excellent supply of nutrients for the growth of Chaos fungus. A Nedrathul corpse does the same but also provides the spores needed to start a Brain fungus. Now what happens next depends on the environment and if the Brain fungus is being tended or not. If it is being tended then the results will be according to the intentions of the gardener. Now if it is growing wild the results are more up to the environment However if someone or even something that can serve as a gardener comes along and eats some of the brain stools there is a very good chance that the brain fungus will be able to establish some level of control over that being and then we are back to a being tended situation. So. What happens in that situation. Basically the same thing as when any other fungus person dies and gets planted. First some basic Chaos fungus form and with proper growth regulators new fungus people eventually appear and can take over the gardening duties. I think I covered the life cycle links between Chaos fungus and Fungus people somewhere already. If not I'll try to make a point of getting to it later. Anyway, the other side of the life cycle question still needs to be addressed. Can a Nedrathul spawn other types of Thuliens?

A Nedrathul is what happens when you use a fungusman aka Sporanid as the form doaner in the Thulien morphosis process. Interestingly enough it was the fungusmen who first tried the experiment using a wild Cephalarack tadpole and an immature Sporanid for the attempt. In fact several were made at the same time as the full experiment was about observing what happens if an Illith has a childhood. Modified Chaos fungus combined with memory moss were used to create a brain fungus that could be used as food by the growing Illith children. The brain fungus proved to be simi-telepathic and able to share/store the memories of the children. And as the main part of the brain fungus is the underground mycelium, harvesting the upper brain stools caused the brain fungus no discomfort and it seemed to actually look forward to being harvested. This is likely due to the joy the children experienced at gaining new memories along with their meals. Indeed feeding was a group bonding event as all involved entered a temporary hivemind state during the meals yet fully retained a sense of self both during and after. Nedrathul formed in a more conventional way; that is an adult fungusman and a regular Thulien tadpole with a full set of imprinted memories; produse Interestingly similar results. That is a merger occurs. Unlike normal morphosis in which typically there is at best only one survivor. Something about the Sporanid physiology causes a merging effect the majority of the time. Nedrathul can eat brains and do hunger for them, but unlike their Illith counterparts they do not need to and thus can live and work alongside other races much more easily. Of course as it is nearly impossible to tell a Nedrathul from an Illith most other races are not particularly welcoming. On the other hand it is rather easy to tell if you are in an Illith or Nedrathul village as only the Nedrathul will have children. More on this topic later.

More about Eric. He's closer to 10 than 6 but he's small for his age. Red hair green eyes. Surprisingly strong for his size and amazingly fast. Red hair and green eyes are not unknown in the village but are features seen on travelers much more than those that live there. He's also paler than most people. Not albino or anything but definitely lighter skined. Strange things seem to just happen around Eric. Uncanny good luck for him and people around him when he's in a good mood; which is most of the time. But equally Uncanny bad luck for anyone who is being mean to him.

Nice to see you too. At some point I should have the kid take a closer look at the box that the magical Warior figure arrived in. Ornately carved. Dark, heavy wood of a type the kid has never seen before. Strange Magical symbols all over it. A folded piece of parchment under the figure. The writing is in Strange runes that the child has never seen before; and yet as he looks at it he is perfectly able to understand what they say. The writing of the figure is the same and only after looking at the parchment does he realize that he read it without noticing that it was in an unknown language. The boy is between 6 and 10. Small town. Middle ages early Renaissance feel about it. His bedroom is a small part of the attic above an inn/tavern. His family owns it, or he was taken in by the family that does. Taken in. Just showed up one day. Not sure how old he is, where he comes from, how old he is. Or even his name. No; he does know his name. Eric. The name came to him when he thought about it. But nothing else about his past has been willing to reveal itself, yet. All this is coming to me in bits so far and I'm just jotting it down. At some point, when I have enough information to work with I should take the time to organize all this into a more proper narrative style.

I don't know why I can't reply to the Help post but as I can't I'll put my thoughts here. And because my mind just works like that, I'm linking the two ideas you mentioned in your email. The small child who finds the box under the bed. When he opens the box there is a carved figure, about six inches high, of a Warior in full gear. But not really ready for battle. The sword is sheathed, shield and spear strapped on his back with the helmet hanging by its chin strap from the end of the spear. The figure stands on a base with the words: "The Karthinian Giant" carved on the front. On the bottom is the instruction: "Place me where I can see and I will gard all that I can see." That's all the inspiration I've got on this for now. Whoever wants to try to take this further Go for it.

Now to understand how we got from assassins and shock troops to the Xeth we have today one must understand how the Yun-Xi were defeated in the war. The main flaw in their plan was the part that they saw as the most ingenious. That is using the enemy as a source of recrutes for their side. And to be fair it is an effective strategy, as long as you are using a process that erases the original mind completely. Where they let their arrogance trip them up was when they tried leaving the original mind mostly intact. Erasing the personal details and relying on mind control for obedience as a way to get smarter better trained troops. The assassin/spy Xeth were the test run for the mind control part of this plan. If they could be kept obedient while passing as their former selves and betraying those around them. Then they could be counted on to remain obedient after becoming field commander warriors. A clever plan. But they were not expecting to abilities of the Wrydlings. I'll go into more detail about Wyrdlings elsewhere. But for now the important part is the Wyrdling abilitie to precive and break mind control. Along with the ability to restore erased memories. Not perfectly perhaps, but well enough that we were able to turn the tables on the Yun-Xi by sending their spies back transformed into their Field Commander state, but loyal to our side. As Warior Xeth are made to all look alike, and given that our turncoats were still able to both hear and speak into the hivemind it was quite easy for them to pick off key Yun-Xi and destroy important installations. After all they were created to command the other Warior Xeth. Who were created to follow orders with out asking questions. Now once the war was over there was the problem of what to do with a bunch of free willed Warior Xeth that couldn't be changed back into the people they were before. Attempts were made and there were some successes. But there were far too many failures for it to be a reasonable option. The Assassin Xeth were a great help to their less fortunate fellows. Being able to assume their original form they were able to handle interactions with other peoples and thus make setting up a community much easier than would have otherwise been the case. The Morlocks and Sporanids were also very helpful. Providing both resources and trading opportunities. While some of the Xeth had been craftsmen in their former lives most were just Wariors. This however did not deture the Morlocks who were able to arrange contracts for hiring out Warior Xeth as both warehouse guards and after a time bodyguards. After all having a couple of Warior Xeth flanking you is quite effective at convincing most people to avoid messing with you. After a while the demand for Xeth Bodyguards became high enough that they were having to take people who were being provided by the customers and transform them into Xeth. Mostly Bodyguards of the Warior type, but every now and then was a request for an Assassin type. Over time the process was improved to the point that Assassin Xeth were able to change form in seconds. Making them quite useful when more discreet bodyguards are needed. The faster change ability does not come with out it's tradeoffs, most notabl are the eyes and skintone, both of which are just not quite human. The main enclave of Xeth is located in the city of Drumslow on the Island Continent of StriYa in the Southern Hemisphere. Given the Hive mind abilities of the Xeth and the somewhat questionable nature of the business dealings of the people who tend to want Xeth Bodyguards it is quite likely that the Xeth Enclave secretly control most of what goes on down there. Or at the very least know about it.

Assassin Xeth require a subject/victim/form donor onto which the Xeth form can be grafted. Unlike the Thulien morphosis process, which is intended to erase the form donor's identity. The grafting process used in the creation of assassin Xeth is generally intended to preserve that identity. So as to better maintain the illusion of normalcy with is extremely useful in preforming their mission. The combat form of the Assassin Xeth is more similar to the base form than the Warior Xeth. Looking basically like the base form covered in the Xeth carapace. Which in assassins is softer and more flexible being basically equivalent to hide armor rather than the boiled leather toughness of the Warior Xeth. It is unclear exactly how quickly an assassin Xeth can switch between forms but reports tend to indicate that the change can take as little as two minutes.

The first Xeth were created by the Yun-Xi during the Druid Necromancer Wars. It is generally believed that the Warior Xeth were created first and the Assassin Xeth came later. I am inclined to believe that it was the other way around. Given the stleth infiltration abilities of the Assassin type, it seems far more likely that both were created at the same time. But the Warior type was encountered first as they are shock troops and very much ment to be seen. Warior Xeth are clearly built for combat and to be scary. The exoskeleton provides natural armor equal to boiled leather. The whole front of the head, above the mouth, is a single compound eye, quite similar to the compound eyes of the Slisty, and offering a similar host of visual abilities. While being protected by a hard clear layer every bit as durable as the rest of the exoskeleton. They have been reported to have biocurrent abilities and an assortment of forearm mounted spray cannons able to unleash fire, acid, lighting, and web effects. Although this seems to be on the order of a pick two type of deal as I can find no reports of any one Xeth using more than two of these abilities. Excluding the biocurrent abilitie, which all of them seem to have. They also have a hive mind abilitie which makes a team of them just that much harder to deal with.

Urlo are typically treated as little more than a footnote added on to writings about Choca. Which is understandable, given that they are closely related, and an Urlo is simply what happens to unimplanted Varna tadpoles in seawater rather than freshwater. And sadly most researchers simply leave it at that. But that misses several interesting details about Urlo that are very much worth taking note of. There is of course the physical aperance of the Urlo as compared to the Choca. Which, to be fair, is typically included in the footnotes. For those of you who may not be familiar with these details allow me to quickly recap the basics. From the waist up Urlo and Choca are humanoid in basic terms; head, neck, shoulders, arms, torso. But from the waist down you have very clear differences Choca have two tentacles, quite strong and muscular serving as legs even branching near the end into smaller tentacles that serve as toes. Urlo in contrast have a somewhat bulbous lower body with six tentacles in a radial arrangement very much like the eight tentacles found on Cephalarack. And like the Cephalarack Urlo have sudo bones and joints that allow them to scuttle along in a spider like fashion. Which brings us to a couple of important details that tend to be overlooked by most researchers First, While Urlo are most often found in the depths of the sea they are every bit as able to adapt to air breathing as their Choca counterparts. And second Urlo and Choca are able to undergo an induced morphosis by which one can transform into the other. The exact means and reasons for these transformations is not known as of yet. But I intend to continue my research into this matter.

No. I just found in on the net somewhere

Deep Ones are the result of Thulien larvae implanting into Merefolk and/or Tritons. The Morphosis process and results are basically the same as for implantation into land based humanoids. There is a somewhat higher survival rate for Kulls than in their land based counterparts But this is due to the simple fact of how implantation can occur in an aquatic environment. Implantation on land is basically only going to happen with help. So there will be Thuliens, typically in the Illith phase of their life cycle, nearby to notice and dispose of Kulls when they occur. But in an aquatic environment implantation can occur in a much more by chance manner. With a larvae simply finding a sleeping Formdoner implanting itself. As to aperance Deepones look like Illith from the waist up and like a Merefolk or Triton from the waist down. An interesting side note on this is that Merefolk and Tritons seem to be two forms of the same species. That are simply manifesting different aspects of their nature. Most notably the single vs split tail/legs and abilitie to come ashore, breathe air, and so on. From my research it seems that switching between Triton and Merefolk modes is a function of environment and will. Although there may be some potion involved to help expedite the process. Which seems to take a few days to a week to accomplish. It is also worth noting that Kulls seem to be much more accepted in Merefolk/Triton society than is the case on land. As to why I have yet to find any particular reason. But given that acceptance of Kulls varies widely in land based cultures it is quite likely that I will find that there is no particular reason and it is simply a matter of circumstance and expedience.

Back when I was running a campaign in the Shard Scape, I was mostly using D&D 3rd edition for my game mechanics. With a few mods for stuff that D&D didn't have. The Shard Scape is both a game world and the background for some stories that I intend to get back to working on someday. The stories are sort of connected to a second world that is a version of Earth as it would have been if a Thulien colony ship had crashed under Chicago in the 1920s. The main Shard Scape is a D&D ish world that is coming apart due to time travel paradoxes that are mostly the work of the mad god yuuxath. I'll need to take the time to look through what all I've posted so far to figure out what lore I have and haven't covered yet.

Nope. No book. It all relates to my Shard Scape game world. But the stuff I have here is as close to organized as it gets; for now. Why ? Because I haven't gotten around to doing anything more with it, yet. In the meantime I am willing to try and answer any questions you might have about my world and the things that are running around in it.

While many believe the Slisty to be a race unto themselves, this is not actually the case. They are in fact a type of ZaRak. The confusion is however quite understandable as the slisty are contracted for periods of 5 to 10 years. With many Slisty staying out in the world for many more years after their initial contract is completed. While other ZaRak can be hired for various projects, these arrangements are typically for only a few weeks and seldom for locations greater than a few days travel from the hive. Slisty are humanoid in shape standing around 5 to 6 feet. With 5 and a half being the most common height. They range in color from light tan through brown to dark green. There is no apparent connection between color and age or gender. The latter bit being no surprise as most people believe them to be genderless. This is another understandable mistake, as they do not want the truth of their nature widely known. The reality of the matter is that they are in fact hermaphrodites. So that a pair of Slisty are able to start a new hive in any location that suits their purposes. This is quite likely why they exist and are contracted out in the first place. As it both provides income for the Hive and allows for a long scouting period for the finding of suitable locations for future Hives. For those who may not be familiar with the Slisty a quick rundown of their aperance and abilities. As noted above they are humanoid in shape, three fingered hands with opposable thumb and claw like nails. Capable of dealing damage equal to a typical dagger. The most notable feature of the Slisty is of course their large compound eyes. With each simple eye having an optic membrane, similar to that found in Morlocks, and able to both focus and polarize light independently. Slisty have truly amazing visual abilities. Including 180 degree vision and almost supernatural accuracy with ranged attacks of all kinds. While somewhat more limited in the range of temperatures they can tolerate compared to other races, their other abilities still make them a highly valued addition to military teams in a wide range of operations. The full lifespan of a Slisty is unknown as they do not come out into the world until they are full adults and return to their hives before the onset of any desernable signs of aging. The typical active phase for a Slisty is around 50 years. The outer carapace of a Slisty is comparable to boiled leather and provides protection basically equal to armor of that type. As to weapons, they prefer ranged weapons, naturally But seem to have little preference beyond that. They can and do carry and wield close combat weapons with adequate skill and no notable preference as to type. It is not really all that surprising that their skills at close combat are not that impressive given that very few foes are able to survive long enough to reach close combat range. If you are deadly enough with your bow and throwing knives, You aren't really going to have much need for a sword.

Related note on Cephalarack spores. These spores do not actually come from the Cephalarack itself but are derived from the Chaos Fungus upon which it feeds. Which accounts for why the various types of Chaos Fungus are so often found around Thulien spawning pools. More on Chaos Fungus in a later post.

Wow. I can't believe it's been this long since I was last here. Anyway new bit of lore on the Thuliens. Relating to the Intelect Devower; or Seku. This phase of the Thulien life cycle happens when the person infested with cephalarack eggs doesn't end up immersed in water at the time the eggs are ready to hatch. This is fairly rare as the spores implanted with the eggs makes the impulse to seek out a deep enough body of water quite strong. (More on those spores in a bit.) However it is something that can happen and when it does the eggs dissolve releasing compounds that cause the brain to undergo a morphosis similar to what happens in the Varna. The notable differences being that this is happening at the egg stage and is producing a seku. Seku have legs and a scorpion like stinger which is used both for injecting a paralytic venom and the laying of eggs. The eggs, (typically placed near the base of the skull ) will behave the same as the eggs of a cephelarack hatching into tadpoles if the infested person is submerged in water or else dissolving and producing a seku if not. Once a seku has hatched it feeds by way of essence drain leaving a desiccated carcass behind if feeding in its natural state. A Seku will aquire a husk similar to how a Varna does. However the Varna is using the remains of the person it formed from. A Suku will make a new husk for itself by consuming the brain and memories of its victim and then using its body compression ability to fit itself into the now empty skull. Once it has installed itself and repaired the damage involved with this process it will feed on those around it through a slow and subtle form of essence drain that slowly erodes the mind (which is where the Intelict Devowerer name comes from. ) Seku are used as spies just as Varna are. The main advantage to the Seku is that they do not undergo the growth process that limits the time a Varna can act in this role. The major drawback to using Seku is that the essence drain process is less reliable at gaining the memories There is an ongoing debate among scholars as to why Varna seem to be preferred over Seku as spies. I hold to the belief that this is not the case at all and that the reason Varna seem to be preferred is due to the Varna simply being discovered more often. After all if a Seku is careful about its feeding habits its presence could go undetected for a very long time.

While Sky Jellies are aberrations they do not share the complex life cycle of most other aberrations. Able to reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sky Jellies also seem to have total control over how many offspring to have and how long to spend on gestation. While I'm quite sure that there are practical limits on size and number of offspring, there are credible reports of Sky Jellies giving birth to swarms of several hundred, each only a few inches across. And equally valid reports of a single offspring, that was close to 20inches across. Which is essentially a young adult. Both of these events involved a generation period of approximately one year. There are other reports of Sky Jellies giving birth to a dozen or so offspring of about an inch in size in as little as a month. It is unclear how long these creatures live or how big they can get. There are reports, (of questionable veracity, and so far unconfirmed) of specimens that are over 500 years old and over 5 yards across. More credible reports put the average age at around 100 years with a cross section of around 6 feet with a matching tentacle length. Sky Jellies are able to photosynthesize but are also known to eat pretty much anything they can find or catch. So it is unclear how much of their energy needs are provided by sunlight and how much from what they eat. In any event Sky Jellies are generally peaceful beings mostly interested in going about their lives and studying whatever happens to catch their interest. They are a psionic race, displaying telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. As the most common abilities. With various other psionic abilities being reported in some individuals. Expect for a very basic form of teleempathy Most Sky Jellies don't start showing abilities until they are close to young adulthood. The rate of development in a given individual seems to depend upon how developed they were at birth and on available food. A newborn only a couple of inches across is known to have reached young adult size,(about 3 feet across) in as little as 6 months. As Sky Jellies, like all Aberrations, have genetic memories, There was no evidence of any lack of mental development in the individual noted above.

The final (at least for now) features of the Tiki Islands are the Oasis Mountains and the Halo Islands. The Halo Islands are located in a ring around the edge of the rest of the archipelago and the mountain at the center of each island has a ring of clouds around the top. This cloud layer marks an intershardic boundary which when crossed provides access to assorted oases located in the Suhadra Desert. Which is beyond the western firewall of Astrya. See map.(assuming I get around to drawing one and uploading it.) As to which island links to which Oasis...Good luck sorting that out. As far as can be determined the oases in the Suhadra wander around every bit as much as the islands. So it is impossible for me to say if a given island stays linked to the same oasis or if that also changes randomly. So just hire a native guide and tell them where you are trying to go.

The islands get their name from the talking Tikis that are scattered around all of the Islands. While no one seems to know for sure who (or maybe what) make the first ones they seem to be self replicating/generating as new ones are reported every now and again. Or maybe they just move around and/or change appearance as people also report not being able to find older ones who's location was thought to be well known. The Tikis can be bargained with for information, healing, and magic items. Taking information, magic items, and raw magical energy as payment. There is a rumor that it is taboo to ask the Tikis about themselves, but no one seems to know for sure. Much less agree as to what, if anything, happens if you break the taboo. Few people are willing to risk it, and those who have tried to find out have been frustrated in their attempts. It seems that it is impossible to find a Tiki while being followed. If you find a Tiki the people who were following you have lost track of you. Or if you are the one doing the following and lose track of your target you might not find them again. Of course this may just be a feature of the Islands in general, as all attempts at mapping them have proven futile. And getting lost is insanely easy. At least if you are an outsider with out the help of a native guide. Natives and long time residents Never get lost and can reach Any location in the Entire Archipelago in a matter of hours if not minutes. It is even rumored that expert guides can reach locations that are not even in the archipelago at all. Careful research into this later trick has revealed the presence of Wayward Pines at the arrival point. But this just exchanges one mystery for another. While it has long been known that Wayward Pines can transport people from place to place it was believed to just be a sort of random tunnel type of thing. Find one, note where it is, wait for it to flicker to its other location, and make a note of where that is. And you have a secret shortcut between those two places. But no one seemed to know how to set up the link or how they were triggered. But the Tiki Island natives seem to know how to do both. Which leaves me wondering what price is paid for this secret.

Tell me more about this atoll and I'll see if I can locate it on the map

The Tiki Islands, as I may have mentioned elsewhere in these writings, are an archipelago located a rather goodly distance to the east and a little bit to the south of Ha'Ven. Or about a full day's sail Northeast of the Sargasso sea. Places and features of note include the Big Island at the center (more or less) of the group called Big Island, Center island, or Hakaguiluge. (Pronounced: hock a gooy loogy .)(Don't give me that look. I didn't name the place.) Which is also the name of the volcano at the center of the island. The volcano, and the whole archipelago to some extent, is magical. As well as Simi active. While it hasn't erupted in ages. There is a lave chamber with magma that rises and falls regularly enough to keep the mud pools on its slopes bubbling at near boiling temperatures. Even heating them enough to send large blobs of scalding hot mud flying out of the pools and several yards downslope. While this would seem to be a good reason for sensible people to stay away. It is also one of the main reasons for some people to go there. As noted the volcano is magical, and so is the mud from the pools on its slopes. With just a little work a skilled Alchemist can extract a number of different magical Dusts and Powders. As you might expect the levels of magic here are high enough to give rise to Mudmen in a number of the mud pools. So; No, you aren't imagining it. Those scalding hot mud blobs are being aimed at you, more often than not. Still, given that a one pound ball of this magic mud can sell for 5 to 10 Silver. There are a number of people who make their living by dodging scalding hot mud blobs and looking for rare plants that don't grow anywhere else. There are also rumors of a complex of caves and secret chambers up there that have been used as hiding places for different magical artifacts over the years and whatever equipment Adventuring parties that didn't make it might have had with them. There are a number of other features of the Islands that I'll get into next time. As well as a few more details about what's rumored to be hidden in the caves of Hakaguiluge.

You start with C the catalyst Once that's in place you move on to B which by itself is harmless and will be broken down by the body into E which is excreted. But when C is present it is turned into D which is deadly. So to counteract D you take A the antidote. A turns D into E which is excreted but the reaction also turns A into B which then reacts with C forming more D. And so you are trapped by the chain poison. Now the key to getting out of this is in E which can be collected from what you are excreting and then reacted with A to form F. Which can then be used to flush the C out of your system. And without C the B formed by naturalizing D with A just breaks down into E which is excreted and then you're free.

So of course. This time it works. Oh well, at some point all the bugs will get fixed.

Just tried to post something and it is saying my Email address is in use by another member. Got the mass email you sent. Tried replying to it. Didn't work. Trying to post stuff here. So far also no luck.

Good Luck Well that worked And I'm able to change themes. And so far it's only ask one time if I'm a robot. So, Good Job. Keep up the good work.