CELLQUEST: RIP in Piece [DEAD due to inactive host]

[Wessolf27]

A, charge and use your fin-blades this time, aim at a part that isn't protected, like the fins or the eyes.

[Sam B]

Act:

Taking careful aim, you Charge at the greedy Seatrout, launching yourself off the sand and rocketing through the water like a tiny, living torpedo! (Torped-who?) You try to angle your tackle just right so your body hits the fish's unprotected side, slashing him with your pecto-blades. Unfortunately, due to your poor sense and mobility stats, you completely miss and veer off to the side, crashing silently into the sand! (-1 HP)

The dastardly fish takes advantage of your vulnerable state and zooms in for an attack, biting at your small, incapacitated body. You take some harsh damage (-7 HP) even with your C-plate shielding you, but before the fish finishes you off it suddenly jolts backwards and swims away, leaving a distinct trail of blood clouding the water! It seems your pecto-blades severely cut the fish's mouth upon biting you, damaging him bad enough that he fled from you!

While not the most graceful victory, you are victorious nonetheless. That particular Masked Seatrout probably won't be stealing food from your kind anymore, if he even survives the numerous carnivores that will no doubt be attracted to his sweet, tasty blood trail. The delicious rocks are now free for you and your colony to eat, and as your hungry comrades gorge themselves on the hard-won food, you snag a few more bits for yourself to restore the energy you lost during the fight, which also nets you a few additional DNA Pts.

You have 19 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Lead the Eletus colony coast-wards.
B) Lead the colony deeper into the ocean/reef.
C) Stay where you are and rest a while.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with thin keratin blades down either side; Pair of red stigma on either side of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coral reefs)
Behavior: Cautious, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 80%
Size: 3.0; About 2 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: .5; You move poorly for your size, and cannot swim effectively.
INT: 2.5; You have the beginnings of a brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Pecto-blades on your sides.
DEF: 1.5; You have a thin C-Plate and a pair of Pecto-blades, deterring predators.
HP: 7/15

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Disgorge: Vomit some of the contents of your belly with mild force. Effectiveness increases with a larger Belly %. Divides current Belly by half.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Askia]

C stay and regen hp

[Riou]

C. I think we should stay where we are before we do more exploring. Can't hurt to be safe.

[Aabcehmu]

I agree with Askia and Riou and vote for C.

[Kíeros]

> Calm yourself and rest to begin.

[Wessolf27]

>Recuperate

[volnrok]

C, taking the opportunity to snack on some rocks or sand.

[Sam B]

Act:

While the other Eletus fill their bellies with what's left of the rock pile you take some time to relax, and focus your energy on aiding the regeneration of your body. But, you are only able to heal a small amount before your short rest is interrupted by the sudden and completely unexpected appearance of a dangerous predator! A young Whiptail Shark has been drawn to your location by the scent of blood left behind from your battle! Though the hungry shark was probably expecting an easy meal in the form of a wounded seatrout, it seems more than okay with dining on a few helpless, fattened worms (i.e. you) instead.

The shark glides just above you and lashes its tail out at the seafloor beside you, kicking up a large amount of sand and obscuring your senses. Your colony starts to panic as they're effectively blinded by the attack, and the four Eletus near you start to flee in various directions as you all quickly lose track of each other. One especially startled Eletus accidentally Disgorges at nothing in particular out of sheer fright, slightly thickening the sand cloud around it.

Though you're unable to detect from which direction the Whiptail is coming from after that surprise attack, it is safe to assume that it will, in fact, be attacking again very soon. It will take some really quick and clever thinking to get yourself out of here unharmed, and it may not even be possible to save the entire colony from this deadly carnivore.

You have 19 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Join your brethren in panicking trying to flee.
B) Bravely attack the darkness! Who knows, you might actually hit something. (Special Voting Parameters: Select a method of attack.)
C) Resign yourself to being eaten by the shark. Quitter.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with thin keratin blades down either side; Pair of red stigma on either side of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coral reefs)
Behavior: Cautious, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 50%
Size: 3.0; About 2 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: .5; You move poorly for your size, and cannot swim effectively.
INT: 2.5; You have the beginnings of a brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Pecto-blades on your sides.
DEF: 1.5; You have a thin C-Plate and a pair of Pecto-blades, deterring predators.
HP: 10/15

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Disgorge: Vomit some of the contents of your belly with mild force. Effectiveness increases with a larger Belly %. Divides current Belly by half.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for D, get to somewhere where the whiptail can't come at you from the back, and wait. If it comes at you, charge out of the way and try to to hit whiptail's fins.

[Wessolf27]

I vote for D, get to somewhere where the whiptail can't come at you from the back, and wait. If it comes at you, charge out of the way and try to to hit whiptail's fins.

This is probably the better option. Hopefully those other eletus might use their disgorge ability together to fend off the shark. As for you, it might be best to wait in the kelp/anemone/coral/whatever hiding place you can find.

[Mithanu]

I vote for D, get to somewhere where the whiptail can't come at you from the back, and wait. If it comes at you, charge out of the way and try to to hit whiptail's fins.

Third.

Changing my vote to break the tie. D, hide in the sand.

[Shrump]

Hmm, one thing we could try is: D, half bury youreself in the sand and curl up into a ball on your side. Effectively only having your blades above the sand.

(Aabchemu's suggestion does sound good, but since we're blinded right now we not find a strategic spot in time.)

[Aabcehmu]

My major point was to go for the fins, since the thing basically can't do squat if it can't turn fast enough.

[Kíeros]

> Disguise yourself by burying yourself in the sand.

[volnrok]

Just bury yourself in the sand, preferably with blades up. It's senses will already be obscured by the dust cloud, so we will be difficult to detect.

[Ross_Varn]

Unfortunately, due to your poor sense and mobility stats, you completely miss and veer off to the side, crashing silently into the sand! (-1 HP)

See guys, this is what we get for being all bloodthirsty and stuff. We didn't need the blades, jeez...

[Aabcehmu]

Indeed. I propose we move to replace or upgrade our stigma the next time we have an opportune time evolve.

[Knight_of_Hide]

If that Tail upgrade is still there we could get that to boost our mobility up.
Also, when do you guys think a good time to evolve would be? I'm thinking no evolving before we have at least more than 30 DNA points.

Also I vote for A.

[Shrump]

I agree with you knight, I say we shoot for 35 DNA points before we evolve.

[Aabcehmu]

That doesn't seem too high, especially if we keep on finding depos of rock like this one, so I agree on the mid-thirties.

[Mithanu]

I changed my vote to agree with hiding in the sand.

[Sam B]

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Bluh. That tie business was a mess. I really need to keep a more careful eye out for vote-changes during times like these.

Act:

In the confusion you take advantage of the fact that the sand cloud is also obscuring the shark's vision and burrow underneath the sand to further hide yourself before it attacks again. You angle one side of your body to stick out from the sand slightly, hoping to catch the shark on one of your Pecto-blades if he passes by, but ultimately this accomplishes nothing as the Whiptail never swims low enough to cut itself on you.

The brutal sounds of underwater battle fill the immediate area, but fortunately for your simplistic psyche you are deaf. The activity above the sand dies down eventually and you muster the courage to wiggle out of the sand. Almost all of your colony is gone, presumably eaten by the Whiptail Shark. But a single Eletus remains alive and well, hiding within some nearby coral. The two of you regroup at the sight of the vicious shark's attack, where there are many small crevices in the sand from the shark's tail-strikes as well a few pieces of the former members of your colony left over from the massacre.

It won't be nearly as safe traveling with a colony of two, but against something like that Whiptail it didn't matter if there were five or ten of you. Maybe this smaller number will attract less attention than before... Anyway, you're feeling hungry once again and the delicious rocks are all gone. It's time to move on from this place.

You have 19 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Just eat some sand and wander randomly.
B) Head deeper into the reef to look for food.
C) Travel to the outer edges of the reef in search of food.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with thin keratin blades down either side; Pair of red stigma on either side of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coral reefs)
Behavior: Cautious, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 30%
Size: 3.0; About 2 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: .5; You move poorly for your size, and cannot swim effectively.
INT: 2.5; You have the beginnings of a brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Pecto-blades on your sides.
DEF: 1.5; You have a thin C-Plate and a pair of Pecto-blades, deterring predators.
HP: 11/15

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Disgorge: Vomit some of the contents of your belly with mild force. Effectiveness increases with a larger Belly %. Divides current Belly by half.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Kíeros]

> Anxiously eat sand, watching for nearby enemies.

[Mithanu]

A, get our chow on.