Sandy's Vacation Pictures

Oh yes.

I've got a slideshow.

On a somewhat related note, hello CDN, all six of you that missed me anyway. For those who were wondering where oh where did that dashingly handsome (Shut up Mr. Spiza) CEO fuck off to, well, I'll have you know that he fucked off to The Redoubt on what was ostensibly a "vacation." And, in some ways, it really was: between the mountains of conference calls, oceans of paperwork, and veritable tectonic plates of tedium I actually had a chance to tour some of the fortress-settlements of the world I (technically) administrate.

Which brings me back to my opening statement. Invidiam is currently in a megafauna/flora stage of development with the continents forming a Pangaeatic/Panthalassic dichotomy, the primary biome of the singular landmass being tropical in nature as one might expect. All of which presents the opportunity for some truly lovely image captures and vids.



Saw these on our way in from the shuttle. By all appearances they're dedicated high altitude lifeforms, the smaller ones in the foreground (Isokeres if I recall correctly) never actually land strictly speaking. At least, not at anything approaching sea level; according the the pilot the Tseun in the background serve as self contained, mobile ecosystems. Isokeres will temporarily roost on their hide, or within the nooks of their plates to raise young, feed on some of the other creatures that dwell in the mostly hollow chambers, and take shelter from the storms (much like the one off to the side).

And

ah, here we are. The Gierevii River Basin. Densest concentration of our settlements outside the Ershad Plateau/Kadask'Wed mountain range.



Despite their appearance I must admit I'm rather fond of the unvon. They're generally docile, unobtrusive, and help keep pest populations down. Like the wirriki.

Fuck the wirriki.

But yes, juveniles are about the size of a rainin adder, adults molt throughout their lives and can reach the size of a particularly bulky elcor. They're more ambush predators and scavengers than anything, blending in with the exteriors of trees, or plant matter, or the canopy layer in order to raid nests or lash out at their prey as they are wont to do.

Also, it would appear that they fare well as pets (a number of settlements, particularly those in jungle maintain their own domesticated populations).



But really.

Fuck wirriki.



Yes those are members of my retinue.

Yes they are that big.

No they are not (unduly) aggressive.

Qusa are omnivorous (you can see a few on the right going for some of the hard-shelled pakeds on the trees actually. Mollusks, surprisingly tasty) but tend to be primarily herbivorous. And really, they're amiable enough; something which I suspect has to due to having next to no natural predators on Invidiam itself.



Oh and these. These I like. Azdans. Pack oriented hunters. Local apex predators. Smart, agile, vicious. Fiercely loyal to their local groups.

Also the fact that they tend to keep some of the other, nastier predators (of which there are many considering that it's a predominantly jungle world) down.

But really



How can you not love that face.

He's smiling.

First, let me say: YOU LUCKY BASTARD.

Second, looks like I know what I'm doing next time I've got extended leave.

Nice! How'd you book this trip, Sandy?

He owns a megacorporation.

Take a guess.

It's not like he mentioned being an administrator to some of the planet's settlements in his opening.

The pictures are amazing, and these are some of the strangest animals I think I've ever seen. So, good for you, getting to see all of that.

Azdans, y'say?

I got me a powerful urge t'go huntin' alla sudden. Heh heh heh.

Fascinating! Thank you for that Mr Aleksander. From now on I'll refer Goronak from accounting to this thread whenever he wants us to look at his "very fun you guys" slideshow about his last visit on the footwear museum of Jradan.

Back at the old office, we could have drummed up a lot of interest with pictures like that.

Mr. Sandman, (is that your real name or just a handle? Humans have "man" in a lot of names, I had a colleague named Truman) - Mr. Sandman, would you be interested in opening up your world to regular wildlife tourism? I'm sure some of the people I worked with would love to try and get their business off the ground again. I could put you in touch with them.

Oh. His name's Aleksander? Like the crying guy?

You and I have different must have different definitions of smiling :P

But it sounds like it was fun! Thank you for sharing the pictures with us!

Wait, those big long things in the first picture are alive?

Sweet goddess...

Ok, seeing those things at least once in person is going on my "bucket list." No way around that.

It's not like I ment-

Goddammit.

See now, that's just not fair.

With regards to Kirok and Bitterskin (Mr_Sandman is a handle, my actual name is Nikolai Aleksanders, you are welcome to address me as either) wildlife and eco-tourism have (at least according to the records of our predecessors) never accounted for much of the colony's gross income. Partly, at least, due to the location of the cluster as a whole in...hrm.

The best way to phrase it would be something akin to de facto Nemean Abyss and de jure Greater Terminus. It's well policed either way, but the bulk of C-Space isn't precisely lining up to buy tickets. As such it's become something of a cottage industry rather than an organized venture. That being said I would welcome any input on your part Mr. Phraag, and would like to stress that local guides and hunting licenses are available.


Not particularly intelligent I'm afraid but yes, yes they are.

To all others, you are very welcome. Only a few more to kick out so bear with me, I shan't be torturing you all too much longer.

Now then, despite the rather grandiose name of the Recqavian Cascades (most everyone just calls it The Mire to be perfectly frank) the area surrounding the Recqavius River and it's several hundred tributaries and offshoots is nothing so much as one enormous marshland (hence, you know, The Mire). Several million acres of predators, prey, scavengers, superpredators, and disease.

Beautiful thought isn't it? And we have no settlements in the region which means that the Cascades are virtually entirely untouched.



The Ta'sin are herbivorous (thank Christ) and spend most of their days being a bunch of slow moving lazy bastards.

I mean that, of course, in the sense that they can't be assed to change their course for anything save "because I felt like it". Those teeth'll let it punch straight through deadfalls and river dreck and that armored hide will shrug off teeth, claws, and I'm fairly certain at least a degree of small arms fire. Interesting thing to note, that mane of "grass" is actually made up of fleshy fibers that act as camouflage, alongside their coloring and demeanor. As I said they're herbivores and feed by snagging grasses on the banks and floating plant matter as they drift down (or up, depending on their season and their moods) the rivers and

actually, from what I understand it's somewhat rare to see one ever out of the water. This one had to change streams because the one it was currently traveling down literally dead ended.

Needless to say it was fairly cranky.



Ah yes, bircinnan. Aggressive and highly territorial they also happen to be some of the more common predators you'll see in the Mire. Also (and this bears emphasis) they are fast. About thirty seconds after we snapped this picture, the one here savaged the drone beyond almost all repair. Apparently it decided that it didn't much care for it, before that the bircinnan had been content to bat it around a bit and nose it some. Might have sensed the ME-fields around the casing actually, those whiskers along its snout can pick up the electromagnetic fields of nearby prey and detect changes in the water. How they home in on their targets I believe.



Oh I remember this, the smallish creatures off to the side are called...tavvol's I believe? Freshwater tavvols. They're more or less ubiquitous in most any body of water of any significant size on Invidiam.

The fuckhuge thing off to the side (guide sent the drone out ahead and paddled over himself to get a good shot) is a Par'hak. They're...well I certainly wouldn't want to get into the water with one let's leave it at that. But, according to Mr. Ortega, they're actually rather intelligent. This individual in particular has been familiar with Mr. Ortega for years and is, by all accounts, somewhat friendly when it sees him.

Although I must stress that this is a rather uncommon case and the vast majority of Par'hak are

fiercely protective of their territory.

For anybody in need of clarification I invite you to examine their tusks.



Oh Goddammit...

Erm. Alright, let's see if I remember these. Top to bottom, left to right:

Mastaro shrimp (excellent tasting and apparently everything else thinks so too), adult vaparro, Ulitar's darter (standing on a nonsprouting tile), juvenile vaparro, Reaver sharks (about as friendly and accommodating as the name sounds), greywhip eels, sprouting tile, dusky colored one is a...bashhuk! Yes, and then nagarrok, and finally a tulanus in the bottom corner (sadly not excellent tasting but rather fascinating creatures, they actually keep their own underwater "gardens" to attract mates and...well the best guess is that they simply like the colors) and finally



a...

....

...

shit.

Well it's lethally poisonous I remember that.

Edit: Gatra'naram hah.

This thread makes me hungry.

This thread terrifies me.

Seriously, those are some really terrifying looking animals, Mr. Aleksanders

Mr. Aleksanders, s'pose you can put up some kind of tourist business there to your little backyard planet? I'd love to get there with a gun and go hunt some game (or die tryin') when I get respite from the policing business.

Now, now, it's a well known fact that the most terrifying things on any given planet tend to live in the ocean.

Speaking of which

The Ocean
(Last one I swear)

The truly lovely thing about Invidiam (besides some really quite stunning examples of carnivorous flora and microfauna) is the geography. As one might imagine, a titanic, globe spanning expanse of salt water gives rise to all kinds of beasties and monsters and whatnot. We don't have many settlements on the coasts, at least notthing comparable to the Basin or the Ershad, and what few there are are largely concentrated in a handful of bays, coves, and inlets or at the terminus of the Recqavius River Delta. Storms you see, the warm waters of the equatorial regions power colossal hurricanes that batter the Manyfold (because "that stony patch over there" didn't have quite the same ring to it and, surprisingly "drawer of rocky knives" was taken) more or less year round.

But right, where was I

oh yes, horrible horrible ocean going creatures.



Or not. You'll usually find hekalps in the shallows; they are, by and large, harmless, if occasionally a nuisance. Inquisitive little things (usually about the size of a full grown varren male so "little" I suppose) the benefits of maintaining their populations, as opposed to cultivating them for food, are twofold. Firstly they're something of a keystone species for the local ecology; they naturally keep pests out of the undersea forests and cut back the plants themselves. Secondly, a colony of hekalp tends to keep some of the more naturally aggressive oceanic inhabitants at bay. Which is somewhat important for a settlement that pulls most of it's immediate sustenance from the water.

Thirdly they secrete a slimy coat that's both toxic and utterly repulsive to any would be eaters so it's really, really not worth it.



Speaking of predators, say hello to the scarlet strider. They live their mostly solitary lives on the ocean floor, digging up and cracking open buried mollusks, feasting on fallen carcasses, and occasionally nipping up for a fishy snack when one of the aforementioned mollusks spews chemical markers into the water and summons a horde of aggressive defenders.

Elder ones tend to develop a bit of a self contained ecosystem on their crests. Smaller creatures and Cnidarian analogues setting up shop on top of a relatively consistent source of scraps and protection.



Ill tempered bastards.






Oh right they're called carkarex. Mid to upper range predators in the grand scheme of things. They don't much care for competition. This one here is a...female I believe; juvenile, hasn't hit its growth spurt yet so still about the size of a bull xemna. Adults range between three and four meters.

Their personalities also don't improve much with age. They're basically stomachs with fins, don't much care what they eat so long as they can eat it.



To establish some perspective those white and brown creatures are saltwater tavvols, each about the size of your average volus. The eagaren hunting them are a mated pair (eagaren mate for life more or less and carve out their own hunting ranges together). The nearby (for a given definition of nearby) settlement tagged them some time ago actually. These two have been together approximately ten years and have spawned two clutches. One of their children holds the ranges to their immediate north and another the one to their southwest.


A word before the final picture. It's not often some of the creatures that dwell in the ocean depths rise to the surface. As a result the vast majority are unclassified, an issue further compounded by the scarcity of specimens available for study and research.

To be perfectly frank we don't really have any idea of what lives down there; much less a working understanding. And so, more often than not, when a deep sea dweller makes their way to the surface in pursuit of prey or fleeing from a predator in turn or what have you, it is entirely unlike what we have seen before.

This image was taken from a weather drone approximately two thousand and ninety two kilometers off the east coast of the mainland near the tips of an underwater mountain range known as the Barbican Spires.



I've taken to calling it Red.

You know, Nik, I was about to say 'trade you for Eden Prime'

But uh, you keep Red. I'll keep the colonists.

Yeah you may want to leave out that last part if you ever make touristic brochures. Still, amazing read, thank you.

That is certainly something.

And people ask me why I don't like deep water.