The Fifth Race Quest

Ancient beings far beyond the limits of mere corporeal beings watch from orbit as the planet below them burns. Most of the fires are mere remnants, guttering tributes to the massive glass craters that cover over sixty percent of the planet's surface. Dust has already begun to gather in the atmosphere, kicked up be the enormous explosions, and soon the planet will be plunged into a global winter. It's few surviving natives were utterly unprepared for the changes in climate. If they somehow managed to survive, they'd still be little better than the ancestors that planted the first cultivated seeds of wild grains.

Their plan was over before it even began. Glassed in the cradle. The future of their children in this galaxy was uncertain but it would certainly be harsh and brutal for all involved.

This was how Ra ended the threat of the Tau'ri, and destroyed the last hope for the Fifth Race.

"I cannot accept this!" Janos stated.

"But what could we even do?" Oma Desala replied. "If we try anything the others will stop us."

"Not... If we're willing to descend preemptively. They can take away any examples of our technology, so we just have to give them something else. Something less that they can build into more!" Janos stated. "Think of it! We can plant the seeds for a new Fifth Race entirely!"

"I fail to see the advantages of that." Oma gave him a flat look. "The humans were our descendants. Children growing into the shoes of an adult, not lab rats being grown."

"So we use a human. Earth was hardly the only source. If they choose not to retain that humanity, who are we to say that is right or wrong?" Janos prodded.

Oma thought it over for a long moment. "I can't stall the others for long, even if, and that's a big if, we do this. Who did you even have in mind?"

---
Background. Pick 1 (Write in physical characteristics and name.)
[ ] Lo'tar: You were the favored slave of the Goa'uld Morrigan. She picked you for your fiery temperament and fierce loyalty, thankfully you managed to keep your innate curiosity well hidden. When you were selected you felt it a great honor to be so close to your goddess, but familiarity, as the saying goes, breeds contempt. Despite her words of fierce courage and honor, she is a coward and worse a liar. You have come to understand the Goa'uld are not exactly gods, at least not as they portray themselves. Perhaps they were the lesser gods, cast off by greater gods that didn't bleed or fear for being immense disappointments. When a being of real power appears and explains the situation to you, well, you don't have any trouble getting behind the plan he espouses.
Start with rough map of the galaxy and System Lord holdings. Knows the current political situation in some detail. Not much of a fighter, and a bit spoiled from the life of a kept pet. Humans and Jaffa are easier to recruit due to a shared cultural history.

[ ] Tok'ra: While some hate the Goa'uld as other, you hate them for what they specifically have done. You and your symbiote have fought them on countless occasions over the past hundred years and over time their atrocities have eroded at your objectivity. If you get sent to bow and scrape to one more inane asshole of a minor lord you may just scream and set their Ha'tak to self-destruct. You were always a person of action, and all this sneaking around is simply no longer to your taste. When one of the great ancestors appears before you and offers you not only the chance to build a true competitor to the Goa'uld, but also to turn your Symbiote into a queen so that the Tok'ra way of life may prosper you don't even hesitate to accept their offer.
Start with a detailed map of the System Lord holdings. Has a decent idea of current political situation. A pretty good fighter. Tok'ra ally early and easily, though recruiting them wholesale will not be easy.

[ ] Athosian: What's a Goa'uld? It's evil? Does it eat life force? Okay, but you're serious about there not being any Wraith in this new galaxy right? So yeah, I'm in. No I don't care about the details. I. Am. In. Now take us to this new planet you were yammering on about.
You don't know the area, nor much about technology. On the other hand you and all your people are kick ass fighters, damn good negotiators, and aren't tempted for even a second by the offers of these false gods. Compared to the hope of possibly returning home to defeat the Wraith, there is nothing these Goa'uld could say to sway you from your track. Also you actually know what a civic government is, even if you never needed one before, and can handle most of the growing pains of going from a tribe to a nation much more smoothly than the others.

[ ] Chief: It's not like all the humans on Earth are dead... yet. Your tribe and its allies are cowering in fear of the dark that fills the sky and the fog that clings to the land. You may be a simple and superstitious people but you are not fools. Clearly something terrible has happened, and only ill-times await your people. The stranger who claims not to be a god, though he wields the power of one, is difficult to understand at times but you think you get the gist of it. While the jungle you live in looks like a star to other lands far away across a black sea, so do they look like stars to you. He will carry your people across the black sea with the last of his power, and give you something that you may turn to plying that same sea. For it is such that a great many tribes led by wicked shamans who use their magicks, what this stranger calls technology, to impersonate gods rather than worship them have infested that black sea. They even tried to enslave the tribes far across the oceans to the East, but those tribes rebelled and it is through their corrupted dark magicks that disaster now befalls your people. Sounds like a good reason to kick somebody's ass if you've ever heard one.
What's technology? Can you eat it? Significant set-backs in large scale organizing and education, but a very free and fluid sort of social structure and society. Give it a generation or two and you'll be the old fuddy duddies complaining about those kids and their computators! Very independently minded and a somewhat higher chance of your subjects having the Ancient Gene.

---
"And how exactly are they going to build themselves into a fighting force capable of challenging the Goa'uld?" Oma asks.

"Well, I'll just give them a bit of a head-start on a specific technology base. Not ours, that they'll have to discover on their own. So long as I keep the starting conditions reasonable, the Others can't complain too much." Janos replied.

---
Tech Base: Pick 1
[ ] Zerg: Evolution. Start as a Queen with a hatchery and the designs for Drones and Queens. Population starts at 0 besides Commanders.
Resource Points = 1 per square kilometer of creep + 1 per active drone mining a vein/distance in hundred yard spans to the nearest hatchery. (rounded up to whole numbers)
Vespene Points = A special resource that fuels evolution. Amount harvested determined by source.
Evolution Points = The Zerg equivalent to tech points. Necessary to purchase more advanced bio-morphs.
Evolutions = The Zerg equivalent to technologies. Necessary to create more advanced creatures.
Drawback: Expect small groups of your soldiers to wind up cut off from the hive mind and kidnapped by advanced scientific races. Also expect to get blamed when people's ill-thought out bio-weapons experiments turn out, le gasp, a extremely deadly bio-weapon that is now beyond any hope of control.

[ ] Tau: Mechanized Warfare. Start with a crashed colony ship (3000 pop), a good library of educational materials and scientists well versed in first principles. Equipment enough to get a small population situated and started producing with Fire-Warriors for protection. No pre-existing battle-suit/vehicle or vehicle grade weapon designs.
Resource Points = 1 per hundred miners + 1 per square kilometer of mining complex. Maximum of 300 miners per km2.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: When your soldiers kill-shot something it explodes. It doesn't matter if physics says it's all inert matter! It doesn't matter if its been specifically designed not to! It goes up in a great big ball of flames unless you specifically attack and kill the pilot and only the pilot. Sadly your own shit does the same and no amount of design work seems to be able to make the problem go away. At least all of your closest advisers are attractive large breasted women who mostly send you conflicting and competing signals while the bloody ancient keeps giggling to himself about flags. No wait that's another drawback.

[ ] Xenomorph: Murder-hobos. Who needs technology when you’re death incarnate? Not an actual hive mind, just a cooperative hive social structure to prevent you all from going murder-hobo on yourselves. Needs vict-err ‘Aggressively Recruited Volunteers’ in order to repopulate. Those don’t actually have to be sentient. Janos is less than impressed but willing to give you a while to prove you aren’t irredeemably evil. Fail and it won’t be just him burning you from existence. Starting population of a very small hive with only 10 drones to serve you, the Queen.
Reproduction Points = 1 per captured creature of useful biomass.
Mutation Points = Inevitably gathers over time unless actively prevented. When 10 points are reached a new strain, and pursuant Queen, is created somewhere else. This strain may be superior or inferior, and may be willing integrate into your command structure or it may not. They may also be mindless killers or cultured artists. All of this is randomly decided by the dice. May be an extreme boon… Or it may be your worst enemy.
Drawbacks: Where one of the ancient enemies goes, the other must follow...

[ ] Goa’uld: The Galactic Standard. You don’t get anything a sufficiently high ranking Goa’uld wouldn’t have… But you also get a few people that actually understand the principles behind it well enough to design more. Start with fully loaded Ha’tak (2000 pop) with construction and manufacturing equipment in its hold.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Between them these two represent the only important resources in a Goa’uld tech base.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: You're using bog standard tech and trying to create an out of context problem... Does this really need to be explained?

[ ] Modern: A quick peak in a few relatively close universes gives you a decent idea of where Earth would have developed to before they re-opened the Stargate and entered galactic affairs. Of course they won’t have the install-base of billions so some things will break down pretty quick… On the other hand since they won’t be starting on what was once the heart of your empire and therefore long since mined of any and all useful Naquadah deposits within twenty light-years, they’ll quickly discover the galaxy’s wonder drug and start making some rather significant leaps. Starts with a planned industrial city (10,000 pop) in a resource rich area and some heavy mining and industrial equipment.
Resource Points = 1 per thousand miners + 1 per ten square kilometers of mining complex. Maximum of 500 miners per km2.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah. Necessary for the invention, construction and maintenance of high capacity computers and high energy reactions.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Necessary for materials strong enough for long distance interstellar flight.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: Something about your planet's Stargate is just weird. Seriously, just enter a semi-random set of valid coordinates and rather than getting one of the many, many, many Goa'uld controlled worlds, you'll instead find yourself sucked into a major political situation, or trapped on an adventure that may or may not reward you with allies, technologies etc. Good thing your exploration teams are especially plucky on average, or else you might have to bury the thing just to prevent it from accidentally dialing a black hole.

---
Advantages: 10 Resource Points to spend.
[ ] Black Market (6): You start out with access to an underground black market that exists between the many lesser Goa'uld Lords. You'll need humans of your own to deliver the goods if you aren't human, but this means Naquadah and Trinium Points can be sold for weapons, vehicles and even technological secrets. What's on offer will change every turn, so try not to miss a good deal when its presented.

[ ] +1000 Human Population (1): Can be taken multiple times. Allows you start with a larger core population or complementary humans if you normally wouldn't have them. All of them are simple untrained serfs that have been... appropriated from forgotten slave worlds. They have some culture but not much and will integrate relatively easily with whatever social structure you decide to set up. (Integrated into the hive mind for Zerg but still fundamentally human including free will. Xenomorphs will need to get clever about making themselves understood but they're at least willing to give you a chance to communicate before they revile you as monsters.)

[ ] +2 Weapons Grade Naquadah/Trinium (5): Can be taken multiple times. Even if your faction doesn't use it, these are very valuable resources. And if your tech base does use it, this is enough to build several wings of death gliders, a couple Tel'taks, arm a small army of soldiers, or significantly improve and fortify your new home base.

[ ] Valuable Garbage (6): Wherever you start you find the remains of a great battle in space floating in orbit of one of the systems outer planets and a couple of ancient crashed ships near your starting point. The participants are unfamiliar and one side has technology you can't even begin to comprehend. None of it is immediately usable but it's certainly a place to start in the reverse engineering game.

[ ] Death World (3): Your new home is full of angry, temperamental, beasts that can rend a man with a single swipe of their claw and tower over your average tank. This makes your home a rather dangerous place, but also significantly more defensible from ground assault. Besides, domesticating the beasts may provide you with a significant source of sheer brawn and battle value.

[ ] Ancient Stargate Platform (4): It doesn't do much for defense, though it does have a fancy energy shield that compared to the power source is practically free. However it's capable of dialing the legendary 8th chevron and therefor connecting to other galaxies. This immensely increases your options... But it's also run by a power supply that you can't even touch until it dies, is too advanced to be feasibly researched, and you're going to have to find a replacement only made by remnants of a lost and forgotten empire that existed millions of years ago. So yeah, good luck with that.

---
"I will descend to act as their adviser... I think I shall call myself Myrddin Emrys." Janos stated.

"Well that's nice. Now I need to go and distract the Others. Work quickly!" Oma said and disappeared.

Janos nodded and disappeared as well.

---
Current Plans:
[ ] Xilph - 5 Votes
[X] Chief
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform
[X] +3000 Human Population

[ ] Dreadis - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Xenomorph
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +1000 Human Population (1) X 3

[ ] SirTinal - 1 Vote
[x] Chief
[x] Modern
[x] Extra Humans x 4
[x] Valuable Garbage

[ ] jean5 - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +3000 Human Population

 

Errata!

Humanoid Troop Qualities

• Rabble - A bunch of humans, usually armed. Usually. Can sometimes be pointed in the right direction.
• Militia - Humans that have set aside a certain amount of time to train themselves in the art of combat. Citizen soldiery, much more effective than a rabble, yet less than a professional soldiery.
• Soldiers - Humans that have made warfare their profession.
• Jaffa - Still fundamentally soldiers, but slightly physically superior to Humans and from a culture that makes even their least unit respond like seasoned troops.
• Elites - Humans or Jaffa that are above the average soldiery. Their morale is always strong at the beginning of a battle, and their aim tends to be significantly improved over everyone else.
• Super Soldiers - Like the Kull, so well armed and equipped their combatants are grouped individually or in groups of 2-6 for combat rolls.

Zerg Troop Qualities

• Swarmers - Zerglings, Roachlings, meant to throw at the enemy in large numbers and control the flow of the battle.
• Warriors - Roaches, Hydralisks, usually used and grouped in formations but not helpless in an individual battle. Generally the core group intended to break the enemy lines that Swarmers have softened up.
• Specialists - Infestors, Queens, used generally on the individual level but not because of high combat capacity, instead because they can do very different things that may turn a battle one way or the other.
• The Big Guys - Ultralisks are a prime example of this. Basically a single unit or small herd of units, 2-6, is enough to completely change the flow of battle. They trample lesser units into dirt, and soak up enormous damage. The battle could hinge just on where one of these guys is placed in your unit line-up.

Evolution Codex:

• Hatchery
• Zerg Tenement
• Zerg Forge
• Zerg Loom
• Queen Bio-morph
• Drone Biomorph
• "Hundling"
• Locomotion: Crawler
• Locomotion: Agile Quadruped
• Locomotion: Amphibian
• Weapon: Work Claws
• Weapon: Attack Claws
• Weapon: Climbing Claws
• Weapon: Attack Fangs
• Weapon: Infectious Fangs
• Weapon: Corrosive Spit
• Carapace: Hide
• Carapace: Tough Hide
• Ability: Detect Resource Vein
• Ability: Inject Larvae
• Ability: Creep Tumors
• Ability: Micromanage
• Ability: Predatory Senses
• Ability: Twin
• Ability: Ferry Passengers
• Upgrade: Retractable Claws
• Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding

• 
  Name: Hatchery
  Cost: 10 Resource Points/1 Drone
  Armaments: None
  Support: Hatching Chambers, Creep Expansion, Resource Processing
  The hatchery is the central building of any Hive Cluster. It allows creep to spread, resources to be gathered and larvae to be born. It's also the Swarms main point of weakness. Protect it at all costs.
  
  
• 
  Name: Zerg Tenement
  Cost: 1 RP/1 Drone
  Armaments: None
  Support: Habitable by Humans.
  Tenements are merely places for humans to live and enjoy each other's company. The drone do them somewhat more strangely than others, but hey what's life without variety.
  
  
• 
  Name: Zerg Forge
  Cost: 3 RP/1 Drone
  Armaments: None
  Support: Blacksmith's Forge
  A place to employ blacksmiths to build equipment for your people.
  
• 
  Name: Zerg Loom
  Cost: 2 RP/1 Drone
  Armaments: None
  Support: Weavers Loom
  A place to employ weavers to cloth your people.
  
• 
  Name: Queen
  Quality: Specialist
  Cost: 5 RP/1 Larvae
  Wounds: 5
  Defense: 1d6
  Locomotion: Crawlers
  Armament: 4x Work Claws
  Support: Large Sack (3 Abilities) - Larvae Inject, Creep Tumors, Micromanage
  A large and usually quite slow bio-morph. It has the ability to be armed with 4 Claw hard-points, but is best utilized for the large support sack that produces large amounts of energy to fuel support abilities.
  
  
• 
  Name: Drone
  Quality: Swarmer
  Cost: .33 RP/1 Larvae
  Wounds: 2
  Defense: 1d4
  Locomotion: Crawlers
  Armament: 2x Work Claws, 1x Corrosive Spit
  Support: Small Sack (1 Ability) - Detect Resource Vein
  The drone is the basic worker of the swarm. Their job is to find new resources and exploit them. They are also necessary to create buildings as their special genetics allow them to morph into any building you can support.
  
  
• 
  Name: Hundling
  Quality: Swarmer
  Cost: .25 RP/1 Larvae
  Locomotion: Agile Quadruped - Very Fast
  Wounds: 1
  Defense: Tough Hide 1d4+1
  Weapons: Attack Fangs 1d6, Attack Claws 1d6 x2
  Support Sack Small: Twin (Produce 2 units for the price of one. Swarmer only.)
  
• 
  Name: Crawler
  Speed: Fast/Slow/Very Slow/Glacial (Swarmer/Warrior/Special/Big Guy)
  Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws/4x claws, 1x mouth
  Special: Small/Medium/Large/Medium
  It's useful for some basic line troops but it's nothing special.
  
• 
  Name: Agile Quadruped
  Speed: Very Fast/Very Fast/Fast/Fast
  Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth
  Special: Small/Small/Medium/Small
  Meant for straight up combat, the agile quadruped is fast
  
• 
  Name: Amphibian
  Speed: Fast*/Fast*/Slow*/Very Slow*
  Slots: 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail
  Special: Small/Small/Large/Medium
  Not always the best unit but it has its niche and can swim through any amount of water, diving depth is limited to only slightly better than human norm however.
  *Gains one rank of speed when in the water.
  
• 
  Name: Work Claws
  Damage: 1d4-1
  Not truly meant to be used as a weapon. These claws are meant for the less immediate needs of labor and work. Still they can be damaging in close combat.
  
• 
  Name: Attack Claws
  Damage: 1d6
  Claws significantly longer and sharper than work claws meant for tearing into the enemy.
  
• 
  Name: Climbing Claws
  Damage: 1d4+1
  Reinforced claw formations that can be used for attack or work, but mostly are made to survive the rigors of climbing sheer faces.
  
• 
  Name: Attack Fangs
  Damage: 1d6
  Strengthened teeth and fangs that can be used by the attacker to bite their enemy for damage.
  
• 
  Name: Infectious Fangs
  Damage: 1d4
  Low on overall damage making it hard to get them past an enemy’s defenses, but when they do you have a 100% chance of infecting them, with 50% chance of conversion to the swarm (as a non-sapient unit)
  
• 
  Name: Corrosive Spit
  Damage: 1d4
  This is an early non-weaponized form. It's great for slowly breaking down things you need to break apart, not so excellent at killing the enemy before they kill you. On the other hand, it's always at least slightly effective.
  
• 
  Name: Hide
  Defense: 1d4/1d4/1d6/1d8
  A layer of leathery skin.
  
• 
  Name: Tough Hide
  Defense: 1d4+1/1d4+1/1d6+1/1d8+1
  A tough layer of leathery skin.
  
• 
  Name: Detect Resource Vein
  Allows this unit to detect resource veins even underground.
  
• 
  Name: Inject Larvae
  Inject more larvae into the hatchery allowing it to produce 1/2/6/4 more larvae this turn.
  
• 
  Name: Creep Tumors
  Lay out some creep tumors to increase the extent to which a hatchery's creep grows this turn by 0.06/0.1/0.33/0.22.
  
• 
  Name: Micromanage
  Only available to Queens, Brood Leaders and Hero Units. Add another action to the turn.
  
• 
  Name: Predatory Senses
  Predatory Senses allow a unit to seek out enemies, track enemies, search for specific known chemicals, find heat sources and gives a much better chance of gaining initiative for your units should it come to a fight.
  
• 
  Name: Twin
  Only for Swarmers, sacrifice the use of your support sack for the ability to buy two for the price of one.
  
• 
  Name: Ferry Passengers
  Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.
  
• 
  Name: Retractable Claws
  Gives a small bonus to initiative, and decreases diplomacy penalties from being armed.
  
• 
  Name: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
  Creature gains +1 to all attack and defense rolls, increases speed by one rank unless already very fast, increases burrowing speed by one rank if applicable.
  

Unit Purchasing Table:

[ ] Morph: Drone	0.33 RP	1 Larvae	Limit: As many as can be afforded.
[ ] Morph: Queen	5 RP	1 Larvae	Limit: 1 per turn.
[ ] Hire: Militia	1 RP	100 Civilians	Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace
[ ] Hire: Soldiers	2 RP	100 Civilians	Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace
[ ] Hire: Scout	0.2 RP	20 Civilians	Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace
[ ] Hire: Worker	0 RP	100 Civilians	Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace
[ ] Hire: Dancers	0 RP	40 Civilians	Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace

Fad Bonus Price Table

	Hunger	Harmony	Concord	Independence
1	50% increase in RP production from drones. All Drones take one wound of damage this turn.	All activities with success percentages gain a +10% chance of success.	If you have regular contact with other neutral or better powers, some people from one of them will immigrate. Amount and Quality depend on the source. Else you will be contacted by an advanced and benevolent power interested in what you've apparently got going for you.	All human units gain +1 wounds and +1d4 defense this turn.
2	Choose any Zerg Only army you own at a Hive Cluster, it will be sacrificed and fed to the Hive Cluster returning its full cost in RP.	When the first army enters combat this turn, two drone swarms are randomly selected from the resource gatherers. The wounds of the army equals its normal wounds plus the wounds of the two drone swarms. If the army still dies, all three die.	Your next diplomatic check gains +20% chance of success even if it's not this turn.	Gain 1d8 EP per 1000 Humans in your Swarm
3	Swarmers gain a 50% combat bonus to all stats. 50% penalty to all tactical rolls.	Have one EP bonus worth 2d20 points. All other EP bonuses that turn are doubled.	Despite your general lack of pallet, the humans of your hive worked creep into some rather impressive specialities. So impressive that this turn's production of creep is rendered into a trade good instead.	Gain a +30% chance of success to any Talent checks this turn, and to the specialist ceiling.
4	Creep production stops entirely, but all expansions younger than 4 turns are advanced to their fourth turn state.	In a miracle of psionics up to ten-thousand humans can be added to the hive-mind without having to be infected at all.	Your one of the nicest people around but even you know that sometimes people just need to leave well enough alone. For three turns the Ancient Platform will 'get a bug' and only allow known friends to successfully dial in.	Select a zerg unit design. Gain a sapient Hero unit of that design.

 

A/N: Now that I know the tech base I'll be putting reference material like the current Evolution Library in the second post.

You spent a long time thinking over the choices the traveler gave you for the tools you'd be using to face the sea of darkness and the false shamans. While you couldn't be certain you understood everything he said, he did take you to a still pond and show you reflections of what the original owners of these tools managed at their heights. All were impressive, some were terrifying, but only one spoke to you.

And that is why you are now staring at your clawed hands watching in awe as they move to your will. Whatever you hadn't understood about the swarm before you now know. It's so... Easy. Like genetics. You just know what all these long acid chains do and a few quick pokes show you can fairly guess what changing them would result in, even if it's not entirely exact. Clearly making something new will require many tests. Especially since now that you can think of these changes you're starting to realize just how little you know. There's nothing to tell you whether a certain leg shape will hold its balance, or if a creature will collapse on its own weight.

The traveler returns though he seems... less, somehow. "I have given up my powers and immortality that I might teach you and advise you as you grow into your new role," he explains. Well that would explain that, you suppose. His mind sort of 'appears' at the edge of a cloud of thoughts, you can't access it at all, but you can feel him transmitting his amusement to you. "From now on you may call me Myrrdin Emrys. I have not been allowed to remember much of my education, but that which is relatively common knowledge among those educated across the galaxy I was allowed to retain. In time I will be able to assist you in more direct ways, but for now I'll be quite tied up educating in basic curriculum you will need to survive." (Myrddin is unable for activities for about 4 years.)

Many more minds suddenly appear to your north. These are your people and those you bargained to gain. Their thoughts are relatively private, you can choose to observe anyone's view point or surface thoughts but their memories are their own as is their will. You're free to ask, and they've accepted you as a nominal leader figure, but its still asking. They've spread out across twelve camps of only a few hundred each, with the closest a couple kilometers away and the furthest about seven kilometers away.

From what you can tell between yourself and the various camps, you've landed deep in a jungle. To the west is a mighty river almost three kilometers wide. You can't even dream of attempting to cross such a river at your current level of development. Maybe its the wet season and it will go down later? A much more manageable branch of the river is to the north, and is only a hundred meters wide at some points and shallow enough to ford. It seems to wrap around the mountain that lies to your east. Frankly the only truly open avenue seems to be south, and that would take you around and past the gate platform is which is two kilometers from your starting zone to give you room to build defenses and what not.

"I've taken the [Control Crystal] out of the [Astrea Porta]'s [Dialing Pedestal] for the moment. When you feel ready to face the galaxy or universe at large ask me and I'll return it to functioning order." Myrrdin advises you when you begin to wonder how you'll properly defend yourself.

There's a spike of terror from the hive mind and you watch through a spectator's eyes as a great cat twice the size of your current body attacks one of the camps near the mountain. Before they can even muster a true defense the creature is gone again, having eaten two people wholesale and killing or injuring eight others. It could have gone a lot worse, and who knows when or if it might in the future.

Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)

---

Important Status Updates:
Your camps may be in danger!
Food is plentiful, and easily accessed! Populace feeds and clothes themselves costing you 0 resources.
You have no drones!

Production:
Creep: 0.56km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 2 (+1 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 50 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 6 (+12 per turn)

Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)

[ ] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
Start building that work force!

[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.

[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.

[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.

[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.

[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.

[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.

[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.

Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.

[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.

[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.

[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.

[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.

[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.

[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.

EDIT: Added 3 more starting larvae for balance. Renamed research for clarity. Reduced creep growth benefit on Increase Creep.