Welcome to Gaia! ::

Introduction

The bony ghoul begins discussing something in roundabout terms, often going on a tangent, sometimes pausing and gazing off into the distance... Crazy cackling is frequent.

Perhaps you should look in those boxes she seems to be gesturing to. Roll 1d6 to determine it's contents!

1. You have a glass foot stool, a bag of dirt, and a vial of... gross water.
2. You have a fish tank, some muddy bottom soil, and a tube of de-mineralizing serum!
3. You found a clear box, some dirt, and something you do not want to drink.
4. You found a bizarre helmet, some protective padding, and a strength potion.
5. You have an empty terrarium, dark earth, and just enough dirty water for a little stream.
6. YOUR CRYSTAL BALL IS WEIRD-SHAPED AND- a beanbag stand and magic wand?

Start tallying up your "learning" points! If you rolled 1-4, you get +1 point, and if you rolled 5, you get +3 points. If you rolled six... Cymbeline is wondering if you are the crazy one!

Setup

Now the heir is talking about plants. Unlike the half-mad babbling from the initial explanation, this is not insane rambling. This is science jargon! You still can't understand what she is talking about in between the simple words like "plants" and "weeds" and "pesticides", but you attempt to follow her example as she sets her own terrarium up.

It is more complicated than it looks, the 'glass' sides slide, fold, and rotate until the cube has morphed into an enclosed rectangular tank with two semi-separated compartments.

Roll a 6 sided die to figure out how well you did.

1. That isn't so b- Maybe this way... Erm... OKAY, your terrarium is set up, although it seems a little lopsided.
2. You set out to figure it out yourself. And after much fussing and an unhealthy SNAP, it appears... mostly right.
3. You aren't half bad at this whole Famine-technology-assemblage stuff! You are only 1/4 bad.
4. It only took you three tries, but your terrarium looks okay!
5. You seem to follow her example to the letter, maybe she's not a bad instructor after all!
6. You... cracked your box. Maybe she won't notice.

How well did you do? Take your "learning" points from the previous stage, and calculate your new total. If you rolled 1-4, you get +1 point, and if you rolled 5, you get +3 points. If you rolled six... Cross your fingers.

Selection

Cymbeline is now handing out bags... of seeds? And her ramblings have turned to a delightfully nonsensical spiel on the similarities and differences of humans and insects and students (which still might fall under the "insects" category) and finally, plants. She brings you the box, and expects you to select one brown bag and one tan bag.

Roll 2d6. The first number determines which tan bag you select. Apparently these are common and useful Human plants.

1. Oats
2. Sweet Corn
3. Asia Strawberries
4. Sugarcane
5. Cherry Tomatoes
6. Vanilla Bean

The second number is which brown bag you pick out. These are plants, weeds in particular, you might be familiar with. They are all FEAR-based varieties that are known for their ability to produce herbicidal toxins, or irritate the skin, or spread like wildfire and choke out other living species. None of them are very pleasant plants, to be sure. You might now be starting to understand what Cymbeline was getting at with all that crazy science babble.

1. Noxious Ivy
2. Hunchback Beggarweed
3. Strangling Knotweed
4. Fiery Spurge
5. Weregoose Grass
6. Bindweed

Evaluation

Now that you seem to have everything you need, you begin to set up your tank. It is all very self explanatory at this point. A bit of dirt in each of the semi-separated compartments, human seeds in one side, FEAR seeds in the other, and voila! Time to add the magic ingredient.

Following Cymbeline's wildly graceful example, you pour the small vial's fluid into the soil in each compartment. And then... BAM! Suddenly you have two fully grown plants. And in the time it takes to wonder how half the Famine clan is still as thin as a rake, you begin to notice a dark, misty substance leeching from the FEAR weeds into the healthy-looking human plant.

Cymbeline begins to walk between the tables, examining the terrariums.


For this section, you will have to compare your two plants on the scale below. This represents how compatible the selected FEAR weeds are with human plants. The closer they are together, the better the resulting hybrid!

Hunchback Beggarweed <-> Oats <-> Strangling Knotweed <-> Cherry Tomatoes <-> Weregoose Grass <-> Sweet Corn <-> Fiery Spurge <-> Asia Strawberries <-> Noxious Ivy <-> Vanilla Bean <-> Creeping Bindweed <-> Sugarcane <-> Hunchback Beggarweed

For example, if you have Strangling Knotweed, it is more compatible with either the Oats or the Cherry Tomatoes than it is with the Asia Strawberries. This can be represented by distance. The oats and tomatoes are only 1 place away. But the strawberries are five points away. (Notice the Hunchback Beggarweed is on both ends of the scale, it can be imagined like a circular scale after all.)

For a distance of 1, you get +3 "learning" point and pass the course!
For a distance of 3, you get +1 "learning" point and pass the course!
For a distance of 5, you fail the course. Oops. =(

[ Horsemen Points Distribution: ] (Select only one option based on your results)

TO OBTAIN 3 HORSEMEN POINTS: YOU MUST HAVE 9 "LEARNING" POINTS

TO OBTAIN 2 HORSEMEN POINTS: YOU MUST HAVE BETWEEN 4 AND 8 "LEARNING" POINTS AND PASS THE COURSE

TO OBTAIN 1 HORSEMEN POINT: YOU MUST HAVE BETWEEN 2 AND 3 "LEARNING" POINTS AND PASS THE COURSE, OR FAIL THE COURSE WITH MORE THAN 3 "LEARNING" POINTS

Foraging

Several large, gnarled trees grow on the surface above the caves of Famine, forming a shady canopy of leaves. The female horseman that met you out here looks as old and gnarled as the trees, what little of her can be seen under layers of sand-colored robes.

“It is a special season now! We gather special fruit. Very prized. Today you must pick it.” She held out a large, poisonous “BUT! Many hidden dangers above us. Flying is no good. Trees here do not want to be picked from so easily.”

“This fruit, she grows fast, ripens with FEAR. Pick her too soon, she is poisonous, stomach will ache. No good.” The old woman pantomimed as she spoke. “Wait too long, she is too heavy, falls to the ground, dissipates. No fruit.”

There is a brief pause before the horseman herds you to the base of a tree. “Waiting for what, then? Up the tree! Go!”