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

[Aabcehmu]

I agree with Kíeros and Mithanu and vote for A.

[Wessolf27]

I'd say if possible A then start traveling to shallower shores where things like whiptails might not go to.

[Sam B]

Act:

Not feeling up to the task of finding some more delectable rocks to munch on/fight over, you content yourself to eat the trusty blue sand of the ocean floor. You gain 4 DNA Pts and sate your hunger easily. Having no desire to stay in this fresh Eletus graveyard any longer, you and the other survivor of the shark attack head out towards calmer, shallower waters.

Eventually you reach what, on most planets, would be the sunny, wave-beaten shoreline. On Aros however, it is simply the smallest area between the seafloor and the ice-ceiling, as well as the area where said ice is at its thinnest. The reef is also at its thinnest here, but you still detect the usual amount of creatures that inhabitant it. Urchins, small fish, etc. You even detect a few Rockshell Hermit Crabs walking about with their delicious little shells.

The faintest hint of sunlight shines (barely) through the thin ice above, and being so close the frozen ceiling makes you feel somewhat cold and sluggish. A brave mollusk of some sort swims up to the ice not too far from you, and promptly dies upon contact with the harsh, chilly crust. Its corpse slowly drifts back down to the sand, and a few of the hermit crabs hurry over to start picking it apart.

You have 23 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Investigate the dead mollusk before the crabs finish it off.
B) Cautiously approach the ice-ceiling and examine it.
C) Turn around and head back into the familiarity of the reef.
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: 12/15

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]

> Be careful exploring...

[Wessolf27]

>A might be at least good to check out why the poor guy died.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for D, keep your distance, get used to the temperature, and explore a bit without moving too close to or too far from the shore.

[Ross_Varn]

A, I guess. No need to risk it all that badly.

[Mithanu]

A, eh what the heck.

[Knight_of_Hide]

D

Eat a Hermit Crab

[Sam B]

Act:

You squirm on over to the dead mollusk to examine it more closely. As you approach, all the hermit crabs except one scatter away from the body. It is unclear to you whether this is because of you startling them, or the fact that the one hermit crab who didn't run off has only stayed on account of it suddenly dropping dead.

The dead creature (well, creatures, now) is reached without incident, and you quickly put your limited senses to work in an attempt to figure out what exactly caused the death of these two animals. Your intelligence is way too low to perform a proper necropsy (necro-WHAT?) of course, but if it wasn't you might suspect that the mollusk was killed by its exposure to extreme, sub-zero temperatures.

On closer examination of the mollusk, you find that it is not a species you recognize even on some instinctual level. Probably a mutant of some sort. Its body is small and flat, with many small barbs covering its exposed side. It has a few small fleshy bits missing, possibly from previous encounters but more likely from the scavenging hermit crabs. The mollusk also appears to have some kind of slimy coating covering it, and its body is secreting some kind of noxious poison even after death. Even with your very limited powers of deduction you guess that this poison is what killed the overzealous crab.

You still feel quite cold being so close to the ice-ceiling, but as you start to get used to it you begin feeling more relaxed than sluggish. Or maybe that's just your worm regeneration taking effect.

You have 23 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Cautiously approach the ice-ceiling and examine it.
B) Eat the dead hermit crab's tasty rock-shell.
C) Touch the mollusk corpse in spite of your better judgement?
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: 60%
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: 13/15

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.

[Ross_Varn]

Let's- not mess with poison. A.

[Wessolf27]

D: Look around for more palatable rocks than poisoned dead rock mollusk.

[Aabcehmu]

I agree with Wess and vote for D, search for a more nutritious, and less likely to be poisonous, meal.

[ComiTurtle]

I don't think we would get poisoned if we ate the rock as it is the hermit crab that died from the poison through ingesting it. Nevertheless the safer solution that wess and aabcehmu have is better so D, look for a better place to feed.

[Sam B]

Act:

You're starting to get hungry, and though the crab's shell is certainly appealing, you instead opt to search the area for something with less proximity to mysterious mollusk poisons. You casually travel along the outer edge of the reef, and it isn't long before the alluring sparkle of a Crystal Coral outcropping lights up the darkness in front of you. The other Eletus that makes up your colony now seems content to dine on some simple blue sand for itself, but the glittering coral entices you so...

But then there's the matter of actually eating this delicious find. While simply affixing your mouth to it and (very) slowly dissolving the coral is an option, that wouldn't do much in the way of filling your belly. You'd get much more out of the delicacy if you only had some way of breaking it into more edible chunks. Where's one of those damned Masked Seatrouts when you need them?

You have 23 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Use brute force and Charge at the coral.
B) Try using your Pecto-blades to cut a piece of the coral off.
C) Give up on eating the rare treat and settle for some boring sand instead.
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: 40%
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: 14/15

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]

D use charge and hit the coral with your pecto-blades

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for B, preferably using a sawing motion rather than a slicing one.

[Shrump]

B, if we do it in a turning motion, we could act like a serrated blade of sorts.

[dragonpaul99]

B, but be careful and make sure not to injure yourself if it becomes clear that you're not gonna break through.

[Mithanu]

B, take that coral!

[Kíeros]

> Be creative, use what you have.

[Sam B]

Act:

You inch over to the Crystal Coral and search for a well-sized piece to cut off. Unfortunately you can't reach any of the smaller protrusions, so you settle on trying to cut trough the base of the coral instead. Digging one of your Pecto-blades into the side of the coral and moving in a slight sawing motion, you start about your tedious work. It seems to be going well as you slide more of your sharp appendage in with each movement, but your progress is suddenly halted as the short length of your Pecto-blade bottoms out, embedding itself only a small portion of the way through the coral's base. You turn and continue to cut along the entire column of the thin, twig-shaped coral hoping a different angle will yield different results, but even then you are still unable to reach the center of its base and fully detach it from the ground.

Your Pecto-blades have become dulled from the strenuous use of them! You'll have to find some way of sharpening them up again if you want to effectively rely on them any more, or just hope your regeneration extends to them and they regain their natural sharpness over time. Who would have thought that trying to cut through something so hard would damage a blade?

The Crystal Coral's base is undeniably weakened now, but it looks like your Pecto-blades just weren't quite able to cut through the tasty treat. You'll have to try something else if you want to reap the rewards of all that hard work you just did. However, your belly feels even more empty now than it did a little while ago, and the idea of giving up and filling up on some easy sand is becoming increasingly appealing to you.

You have 23 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Use brute force and Charge at the coral. (Warning: Will empty Belly)
B) Give up and eat some sand instead.
C) 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: 20%
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. (-.5)
DEF: 1.5; You have a thin C-Plate and a pair of Pecto-blades, deterring predators. (-.5)
HP: 15/15

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.

[Shrump]

B, unfortunatly, I do not think we cut through it enough to knock it down.

[Kíeros]

> Bemoan the fact you were unable to get the coral.

[ComiTurtle]

We must finish what we started! Assault the coral! We do not give up, we are Eletus, the best species ever, we shall succeed!