ROLEPLAY

Mac'Od Bittty exchanges a casket of dappers for a large bundle of brightly colored fliers suitable for distribution to the walls of stables throughout Atys. He takes several copies and carefully rolls each one then sends them via Izam to Salazar Cardini, Zo'ro-Argh, Wilk Potskin, Cuiccio Perninia, Ardan Keale, and Daeronn Cegrips.

To all who come to read this, greetings from Mac'Od Bittty.

I was on an additional investigation into the behavior of the white kitins following the re-growth of additional rotoa near the mounds in the early winter of 4AC, 2577. ((ooc: Reported here. )) It was the first day of winter, 1st Pluvia, 1AC, 2578. I went to the west gate of Zora and found the area just outside the gate transformed into a grove of rotoa plants. I turned around and looked back towards Zora and immediately set out to capture a lumios of the view.

Picture 1



Rotoa grove near Zora looking back at the west gate. This area is peaceful as long as the white kitins do not notice you. Contrary to their previous extreme vigilance and aggressive behavior, they may fail to notice you for some time, but be sure that if they do notice you, they will pursue.

After investigating the behavior of the white kitins and gathering vials of the dust nearby for analysis, I traveled across Witherings to the other kitin mounds where rotoa were planted. At each site I created one or more lumios in addition to pursuing my scientific researches. I present a selection of them here for your pleasure, and urge you to travel to these sites and see them for yourselves. This is an example of the bounty of Atys and of the beauty that can be created even as we fight against the invasions of the kitins.


Picture 2



Rotoa grove east of Hoi-Cho. The view from the east is particularly wonderful, in my opinion, but hard to capture in a lumios.


Picture 3



Rotoa grove east of Hoi-Cho(2) Another view, from a different direction.

Picture 4



Rotoa grove in the north part of Grove of Umbra. This one is in the midst of kipukas and kipestas that have not come from the depths. Whatever is affecting the behavior of the white kitins does NOT affect them. Be prepared to fight or run.

Picture 5



Rotoa grove in the north part of Grove of Umbra (2).

Picture 6



Rotoa grove in KoD near Runninghill Research Post ruins. Once you reach the ruins the nearby kipestas and torbaks should not bother you, and the kirostas from the Tunnel of Woe do not come out this far. If the white kitins notice you, there is good running distance to the east towards Running Hill Pass.

Picture 7



Rotoa grove in Upper Bog. The run in from either the Upper Bog or the Fleeting Garden kavan altars is rewarded with this magnificent sight of the rotoa amongst the cratchas. Keep a sharp eye out for Wyac and if you are lucky you may get to see Nobbin.

Picture 8



Rotoa grove in Upper Bog (2). Another view.

Picture 9



The rotoa grove in Heretics Hovel. After resting from your trip at the Kitin Observation Camp at the Falls of the Twin Totems, venture forth with a sharp eye out for cuttlers and torbaks to see this last grove.

Presented for your pleasure.

Mac'Od Bittty
Ranger aspirant.

Bittty posts the last of the flyers, then returns to Fairhaven to put on his armor and go look at the rotoa again. Surely something so beautiful will not last long. He wants to embed it in his memory.

Beautiful Lumios - many thanks to you, Mac'Od Bitty for sharing these.

The groves of Rotoas are impressive and a welcome addition to the landscapes of the surface, where they have been too few up to now to be properly appreciated. Maybe they will continue to spread, and we will have whole forests of these wonderful trees.

This is amazing Bittty! It appears the Rotas are spreading out perhaps from the Ryzoms (pun intended of course! :D)

Hopefully this will clog the kitin tunnels :)

It is winter again, dear cousins, and once more the rotoa have changed their behavior. The writings of Azhanto alerted me to the change, and I immediately set forth to confirm his observations.

Yes, the rotoa have resprouted again, but much smaller than they were before. I am digging samples and carefully examining the new growth.

Excellent work, Bitty. "As usual", I'm tempted to add.

Beautiful as they are, I'm getting concerned that eventually we'll have only Rotoa forests left. I'm concerned about my beloved Abhaya and Kachine woods and some Mitexi bark.

I also wonder how this will influence the herbivores. Maybe even Javings take a liking and thrive in Rotoa forests? Who knows? Interesting times, indeed!

For now monitoring should be enough. Let's see how Atys looks like in two more cycles. We might have started something bigger than we thought...

An Izam carrying a letter reaches Mac'Od Bittty:

Dear Mac'Od Bittty,

I assume that by now you have got a full report about the recent Perinia Expedition, as it was joined by quite a few Rangers, including the esteemed Zo'ro-Argh. We took samples in the fields, got rid of the remaining Kitins we still found there and are pretty certain now that, at least for some time, no further annoyance from Kitins of the Deep will arise where the Rotoas were planted, as the drug in the Rotoa's roots seemingly will still be active after the root itself has died.

As for the Rotoas itself, the remaining examples are indeed sprigs from the roots of those first planted. With the mother plants withering away, they will, if at all, growing only in smaller and sizes until they will die as well. From what I could see yesterday, they are, if at all, little more than man-sized now. Winter is good to them, with less blazing sunlight, but I guess next Summer will probably finish them off. The Awakened Fey-Lin already administered the last rites to them, so to say. I think she will continue worrying until they are all gone, though.

Jena Aiye -

Mac'Od Bittty dips his pen and continues writing. He has been doing so all evening, though not rapidly. More time has been spent in thought than in writing. The copied report on the table, that was easy to write and send to the Scribes guild for copying; the letter to Salazar is much more difficult. It must be carefully phrased.

Ser Salazar --

Unfortunately I have not had any report of the second expedition by Ser Cuiccio. The Ranger aspirants have not had a meeting for some time, and while I admire the work of nair-Zo'ro, we speak different dialects, and he rarely writes to me personally, nor has he published any of the findings of the investigation (that I know of). I knew, of course, that the white kitins had been destroyed and that no more had appeared, but nothing further.

I make free to enclose with this letter a copy of my public report on my observations on the new growth of the rotoa. It would appear that any worries about a Goo-like infestation of rotoas is unlikely (as suggested by Ser Cuiccio), but I am not yet totally convinced that his theory of a poison is complete. See my included report.

Still, in the final analysis I guess the important thing is that the white kitins are kept to the Roots where they belong. If nothing else it will serve to give us a breathing time before they try again.

-- with respect,

Mac'Od Bittty

Bittty folds the letter carefully around a copy of the public post, attaches it to the leg of an Izam and focuses his memory of the Matis researcher into its brain. It flaps its wings violently and wings its way north towards the Forest.

The public post reads as follows:

Further Investigation of the Rotoa Growth and the Implications for Control of the Kitin Threat from the Depths

Gentlehomins:

Following much investigation not only of the rotoa but of the land beneath them, I report the following.

First: The new growth of rotoa is significantly smaller than in the previous winters.
Second: The new growth of rotoa has not expanded beyond the boundaries of the previous new growth.
Third: That there is no further threat of white kitins incursion at the sites noted.
Fourth: That the mechanism by which this desirable occasion has been achieved is not yet fully understood.

My observations:

First: As any homin with eyes can see from the following lumios, the rotoa are now only two to two and a half times as tall as a short Tryker where before they were more than five times as tall.

Second: As you may see by comparison of the lumios below to my previous published lumios, the clumps are near the same locations as in the last growth cycle and there are no more (and sometimes substantially fewer) rotoa in this cycle than there were in the last.


second growth In Knot of Dementia near Zora


second growth near Hoi-Cho in Cities of Intuition.


second growth in Knoll of Dissent

Third: The very brief report that I received from Ser Salazar about Ser Cuiccio's expedition reported that the remnant white kitins were destroyed. My observation is that there are still none around the mounds. Given the rigorous push to the surface that was exhibited before, it must be concluded that the tunnels are finally blocked. In addition the mounds themselves are much reduced in size in most cases.

I also found that I could not dig deeply into the dust without encountering masses of thorny roots, usually at a depth that did not allow me to climb easily out of the hole (at a depth equal perhaps to the height of a Matis). I also noted that the roots of the rotoa below the surface were much thinner than they were above the surface, and seemed only loosely connected to the mat of roots. These new growths would therefore appear to be more sensitive than was initially thought.

Fourth: As before, I took dust samples from the areas near the clumps of rotoas and also from further away. I also took samples near the root mats at the bottom of my test holes. I do not have the knowledge of the Matis Chimya, or "brewer's science", but I did examine the dust closely with lenses and saw again the glittering black particles in the dust taken near the rotoa. These were found in the surface samples near the clumps at a concentration of close to one part in twenty. In the samples far from the mounds, they could not be detected, but in the samples taken near the root mat the dust contained more than half its volume of the particles.

It would appear that my original hypothesis, that the dust had been broken off by the actions of the emerging white kitns was incorrect and that the particles are instead naturally shed by the roots of the rotoas in the process of their growth. The particles collected near the root mat also glistened more than that near the surface and some of them even had small deep blue crystals at the corners. Many individual tiny crystals were also observed in the deep samples, most of them at a size which our lenses could only just discern. These crystals were very irritating, even to me. They made my hands swell and it was only after washing several times that I could remove the irritation. Since we know that the kitins breathe through openings near their joints, any kitin attempting to dig through such a layer would immediately feel the effects of such irritiation. If the swelling included swelling in their brains, it would explain their behavior.

In conclusion: Without further testing, the difference in the mechanism of kitin deterrance cannot be established, but I am sure that homin ingenuity will make that determination possible -- eventually.

-- Mac'Od Bittty

Dear Mac'Od Bittty,

excuse my very late reply. I don't know if by now you received a proper record of the second Perinia expedition by your colleagues. As for me, I am - as you know - neither a botanist, nor am I able to master your dialect as well as I wish I could, so all I can tell you is a dilettante's summary.

As already written before, the roots of the Rotoa will not rot away and therefore continue to be a hindance for the Kitins. But probably of more importance is the drug you already found in your samples, and Filira Perinia in his. It does not exactly poison the Kitins, but hugely affects them when digging in the grounds and has a huge disorientating impact. That's the reason why the Kitins living already on the bark were not affected at all. We hope we will be able to explore this further and probably will come up with an effective weapon in our war against the Kitin intruders. But no doubt Filira Perinia's studies in this will take quite some time.

As you have already seen, the Rotoas have withered away, as expected. It is very pleasing that they achieved everything we were hoping for, and more, without disturbing the ecological balance the Zorai were worrying about. Everything else the future will show.

Jena's blessing,