conversations: human
conversations:  Few outsiders have been welcomed into the Firstreef, first of the reefs and reef of the First. Those who have, have rarely chosen to return. Those who have returned have never been able to communicate the experience, and it is plain to see why.
  
  Here, polyphony and rhythm, melody and magic fuse into something far more real than the eusonic imitations known in the lesser seas. Something about this unity, this joining, this  dream  of a song warps experience and makes it hard to recount the events when they pass.
  
  What is Firstreef? It's up to interpretation. Some experience a sea of reefbacks, layered impossibly on, through, within each other, an omnichromatic sea of chromatic scales, rising half steps from each other endlessly yea unto the bounds of hearing. Some experience a reefback as vast as the sea, the coral gardens on its back admitting guests to join as part of it for their stay, becoming something more than themselves. Some lucky few experience the reefback that  is  the sea, of which we all are and ever will be part.
  
   Picture yourself on a shell on a reefback 
  With coraline trees and aqueous skies.
  Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
  A squid with kaleidoscope eyes.
  
  Icthyic glimmers of yellow and green
  Pinwheeling over your head
  Look for the squid with a song in its beak
  And its gone
  
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Ahh
  
  Follow them down to a shrine in the forest
  Where crab-seahorse people eat cucumber pie
  Everyone smiles as you swim past the kelp fronds
  That grow so incredibly high
  
  Sea turtle taxis appear on the waves
  Waiting to take you away
  Climb on their backs with your head in the air
  And your gone
  
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Ahh
  
  Picture yourself on a reef on a turtle
  Where dreaming is all, and the old world's a lie
  Suddenly someone is right there beside you
  The squid with kaleidoscope eyes
  
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Ahh
  
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Chora in the sea with turtles
  Ahh
  
  A feast of purification and harmony thanking the chora of voice, the salvation merits and truly has. Except and without it would but have been to imagine a sadness not came. The Vernal Hegemon Undying of Kar-Nath be to thanks, and on reward them to heap, but all should of the world enjoy also the fruits. Rejoicing, rejoicing, rejoicing, and all made clean. This is as it was, is, and must be. Dream.
  
  Everyone is left with a dazed happiness for weeks, but one memory, one set of instructions, gradually coalesces from the haze:
  
   
   Spoiler: Claiming the Wastes for Life 
  
  Steps 1a and 1b can be completed in any order or simultaneously.
  
  1a. Identify and stop the source of the pollution for the target Wastes region. Usually this will be a nearby Terrestrial Waste region which is leaking something nasty. They function akin to contaminated regions in terms of what they will ask you to do. Each is unique.
  
  1b. Establish an Outpost in the target Waste region, which is essentially a self-sufficient structure with many waterlocks and filtration systems that can support a small number of researchers and laborers. This would take a 3-action project, which requires both a technology and a specialized ship to perform. Outposts have names, but no supports, TPs, or HSs.
  
  Step 2 cannot be started until both 1a and 1b have been completed. Begin the process of primary succession by introducing pioneer species of algae, phytoplankton, zooplankton, mosses, and small hardy corals. This would take an Economy/Faith/Military action against TN 18, which requires a technology to perform. Other nations may contribute biodiversity (introducing their own unique species) to help the action succeed, spending a Economy/Faith/Military action to give the roller a +2 on their attempt.
  
  Step 3 cannot be started until step 2 has been completed. Add intermediate species such as mammals, fish, delicate corals, kelp, and crustaceans to the ecosystem. This would take an Economy/Faith/Military action against TN 18, which requires a technology to perform. Other nations may contribute biodiversity (introducing their own unique species) to help the action succeed, spending a Economy/Faith/Military action to give the roller a +2 on their attempt.
  
  At the end of this step, a small Open Waters region is created around the location of the Outpost. It is not contaminated, but may be glacial/toxic/deep/etc. depending on its location and GM discretion.
  
  The number of Trade Posts in the Open Waters region depends on the total number of nations that contributed in steps 2 and 3:
  
  1 nation: 1 TP
  2-3 nations: 2 TPs
  4+ nations: 3 TPs
   
conversations: Lumaeus:
conversations: human
conversations:  Two dozen Ornzol embarked on a journey. Half of them left before the journey was done; they were permitted to. They departed, and were never seen again. Perhaps they lived out quiet lives as hermits; perhaps they died alone in the wilderness.
  
  Another two continued, but expressed their doubts. These two were killed. There is no room for doubt in the cause.
  
  One more was ripped away by some beast in the night. The price of passage is chance.
  
  Nine arrived.
  
  One hesitated, and was struck down by their fellows.
  
  One turned and ran, and this one's fate is known; they came home forever changed, and leapt into the deeps a few years later, unable to bear the weight of memory.
  
  One fell, overcome; they did not scream, but the absence of their screaming was a counterpoint in the harmony. This one, too, was killed by their fellows.
  
  In the end, only half a dozen arrived at the Firstreef with violence in their hearts and blades in their claws.
  
  This was enough. Their goal was not an ending; merely a message.
  
  No battlecry. No warning, before the attack began. Six would cut, stab, maim, and kill until nothing remained of their targets, or nothing remained of them.
  
  They saw only one thing within the Firstreef;
    Prey.  
conversations: Silent_Interim:
conversations: human
conversations:  The representatives from The Garden were unsure.  Claiming the wilds "for life" seemed heretical.  Life was to be controlled.  The Garden and the Chora had a long history, mostly of the Garden asking for things and sometimes getting them.  They had actual allies, both of them, that they had more fraught relationships with.  Somehow, that wasn't reassuring.
  
  When the Ornzol attacked, the priority was clear- shelter in place, you will be avenged.  Somehow, that wasn't reassuring, either...
conversations: Feathersnow:
conversations: human
conversations:  While Leontocaris was inside, the main group of soldiers stayed at the edge of Firstreef.  Only a token group had been allowed inside, as well as most of the rest of the delegation.  The rest would stay outside and discuss things with other delegations also staying outside.
  
  When the Ornzol attacked, the few Lancers drew close to their prince, who also drew his weapon.  He was the colonel-in-chief of the Lancers, a mostly ceremonial role, but he had, in his youth, trained hard to be worthy of being in command of a regiment, so he did know his way around a weapon.
conversations: farothel:
conversations: human
conversations:  Mawbel is here, eating Shrimp Popcorn, watching the events. Both for the idea of gleaning the information on the chora and their new glory, and to spectate the Orznol assault from a calculated distance. Right in the center of it.
  
  She doesn't have much to say here, the poison plant's just  singing music to the battlecrowd and vibing. 
conversations: Epinephrine_Syn:
conversations: human
conversations:  The delegation sent over to the Firstreef for victory celebrations was a relatively small one: with the Frozen King occupied with putting his realm in order for his successor, the one to lead the delegation was decreed to be Araid the Shell-Cracker, a honor bestowed upon the upcoming commander as the result of his role in partially leading the victorious forces of Harmony in Kenaqua. Apart from his lieutenant, noble representative and an assigned diplomat, Araid's retinue only included four Nathi legionaries and a single Depth Guard, a sign of Frozen King's personal interest in the well-being of the upcoming leader.
  
  While mostly including those of militaristic slant, the Nathi were listening to Chora's proposal with rapt attention. It seemed like a ludicrous suggestion, but perhaps even such contaminated areas could be reclaimed: wouldn't there be plenty of glory and prosperity to be had from conquering such challenges? Not everything had to be about military might and immediate power, no matter if the Hegemony's culture valued such things or not.
  
  Of course when the pleasantly dreamlike visit was rudely interrupted by the Ornzol, the Shell-Cracker went right for the midst of the fight, forcing his bodyguard and the Legionaries in attendance to get involved as well.
  
  Although he did aim to intercept the attackers before they could reach the other guests rather than simply cause mindless mayhem, Araid was clearly excited to test his mettle in combat, the Nathi troops ending up fighting alongside Hymonecera Lancers. Who would have thought that visit to Chora's base of power would have proved to be such a viscerally memorable affair?
conversations: Grim ranger: