It is a warm afternoon in summer in Fairhaven, and Mac'Od Bittty orders a mug of cool Zorai ale from Ba'Naer Liffan before pulling out his writing equipment to pen another letter to Wilk Potskin. It refreshes him after the heat of the day spent in the Knoll of Dissent and outside the west gate of Zora.
Thermis 21, 1st AC, 2578
Nair-Wilk, lordoy:
It has been two seasons since I last wrote, and they have been busy ones, but I took yesterday and today to continue investigation of the behavior of the white kitins near the Mounds in the Forest and in Witherings.
First, there appears to have been no change in the number and size of the resurgent rotoa around the Mounds near the ruins of Runninghill Research Center, nor those around the Mound outside the west gate of Zora. For the purposes of this brief survey I only investigated those two, but the situation near the other Mounds has followed those two Mounds in the past.
Second, the composition of the populations of the white kitins has not changed since my last letter. There are furious white kirostas, terrible white kipukas, and atrocious white kinreys. (OOC: level 150, 200 and 250 respectively) and none of the green Kitin worker kipee. I spent some time attempting to count them and I would appear that there are three each of the former and the last, and four of the terrible. The count is not certain since they keep moving, but they are consistent with the results I got in further experiments.
Third, unlike the previous condition of extreme agitation and aggressiveness, the white kitins wander widely in the area of the Mound, but are slow to become aggressive. Most of the time I was able to stand less than 20 m from them without being noticed for some tens of seconds. After some time they would finally notice me and would attack. I was able to discover that the kirostas and the kinreys attacked in groups of three and the kipukas in a group of four. While my strength alone is insufficient to kill more than three of the white kirostas, I was able to do that and observe that it took some small time for more of them to appear, but more do reappear.
I at first thought that it was simply a matter of getting close enough to them to have them notice me, but that seems not to be the case. While I was standing near (less than 10 m away) one of the terrible kitins, one of the atrocious kitins about 30m away suddenly fixed his eyes on me and called his fellows to chase me down as a trio. You may be sure that I moved rapidly after that. In keeping with the usual behavior of the white kitins, the terrible kitin did not join the group chasing me.
Returning to the Runninghill ruins after outrunning the interest of the atrocious kitins, I found that the terrible kitins had decided to notice me at a distance of about 25 m and four of them chased me some distance to the east of the mouth of Runninghill Pass.
I then traveled to Zora and found the same behavior there. I could stand close to one kind of kitin and another would attack, but not with the instant agressiveness shown in the past, although they are certainly aggressive once they decide to attack.
I am not sure what to make of my observations, but hope that you can pass them on to Ranger researchers who may be better equipped to theorize. My own theory is that some exudation of the rotoas is affecting their minds so that they are less observant than usual. I do not think they are partially blind because of their ability to follow me once they have decided to attack. I am also planning to send copies of my recent messages to Cuiccio Perinia in hopes that they may be of some help to him as well.
I hope this missive finds you well,
Bittty
Bittty seals the letter and sends it off via Izam to Almati Woods.
Thermis 21, 1st AC, 2578
Nair-Wilk, lordoy:
It has been two seasons since I last wrote, and they have been busy ones, but I took yesterday and today to continue investigation of the behavior of the white kitins near the Mounds in the Forest and in Witherings.
First, there appears to have been no change in the number and size of the resurgent rotoa around the Mounds near the ruins of Runninghill Research Center, nor those around the Mound outside the west gate of Zora. For the purposes of this brief survey I only investigated those two, but the situation near the other Mounds has followed those two Mounds in the past.
Second, the composition of the populations of the white kitins has not changed since my last letter. There are furious white kirostas, terrible white kipukas, and atrocious white kinreys. (OOC: level 150, 200 and 250 respectively) and none of the green Kitin worker kipee. I spent some time attempting to count them and I would appear that there are three each of the former and the last, and four of the terrible. The count is not certain since they keep moving, but they are consistent with the results I got in further experiments.
Third, unlike the previous condition of extreme agitation and aggressiveness, the white kitins wander widely in the area of the Mound, but are slow to become aggressive. Most of the time I was able to stand less than 20 m from them without being noticed for some tens of seconds. After some time they would finally notice me and would attack. I was able to discover that the kirostas and the kinreys attacked in groups of three and the kipukas in a group of four. While my strength alone is insufficient to kill more than three of the white kirostas, I was able to do that and observe that it took some small time for more of them to appear, but more do reappear.
I at first thought that it was simply a matter of getting close enough to them to have them notice me, but that seems not to be the case. While I was standing near (less than 10 m away) one of the terrible kitins, one of the atrocious kitins about 30m away suddenly fixed his eyes on me and called his fellows to chase me down as a trio. You may be sure that I moved rapidly after that. In keeping with the usual behavior of the white kitins, the terrible kitin did not join the group chasing me.
Returning to the Runninghill ruins after outrunning the interest of the atrocious kitins, I found that the terrible kitins had decided to notice me at a distance of about 25 m and four of them chased me some distance to the east of the mouth of Runninghill Pass.
I then traveled to Zora and found the same behavior there. I could stand close to one kind of kitin and another would attack, but not with the instant agressiveness shown in the past, although they are certainly aggressive once they decide to attack.
I am not sure what to make of my observations, but hope that you can pass them on to Ranger researchers who may be better equipped to theorize. My own theory is that some exudation of the rotoas is affecting their minds so that they are less observant than usual. I do not think they are partially blind because of their ability to follow me once they have decided to attack. I am also planning to send copies of my recent messages to Cuiccio Perinia in hopes that they may be of some help to him as well.
I hope this missive finds you well,
Bittty
Bittty seals the letter and sends it off via Izam to Almati Woods.
---
Remembering Tyneetryk
Phaedreas Tears - 15 years old and first(*) of true neutral guilds in Atys.
(*) This statement is contested, but we are certainly the longest lasting.
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