The Chamax: Gotta Love To Hate 'Em!

[Whipsnade]

Sabredog,

Superb stuff regarding Chamax bug/carnivore ecology, simply superb.

Some more grist for your mill:

- The planet's UWP is X654000-0. That's a 6,000 mile diameter, a surface gravity of ~0.75 assuming the same density as Earth, a thin atmosphere, and a hydrography rating of 40 percent. (I think the last two are very interesting, hence the bold.)

- The thin atmosphere points to big swings in temperatures. It won't hold as much heat as a normal atmosphere after sundown. It will make for colder winters. Perhaps our carnivore is nocturnal hunting the bugs when they huddle up as the temperature drops? Perhaps our carnivore is more active in the winter too?

- The bugs are said to be native of a "small continent", which is odd when you remember the planet's hydrography rating. Chamax doesn't have a "world ocean" like Earth with the continents like islands separated from each other. Chamax has a "world continent" instead with the seas like islands separated from each other. This means the bugs' home is a small continent in a land-locked sea.

- The "efficiency" of the bug carnivores' attacks are said to be the chief reason for the bugs high birth. Again, that efficiency may be linked to the climate of the bugs' home continent.

I think we can use the climate of the planet and by extension the bugs' home continent to get a handle on why they hadn't eating that continent bare despite the presence of the carnivores.

How about this? The bugs' home continent is subpolar and not subtropical. It sits near one of the planet's polar circles surrounded by water or ice on all sides. The water and ice combined with the bug lack of temperature tolerance have kept the rest of the planet safe from the species.

During the continent's brief summer the hibernating bugs awake and being devouring the countryside. The biomes other species, both plant and animal, have evolved to either wake up before the bugs or migrate away from the newly awakened burrows.

When the bugs are active, the carnivores are active too, hunting down and digging up bug maternal burrows at night. Bug numbers do explode during the summer and many new nests get founded, but the arrival of autumn put them in hibernation more and more often leading to a feeding frenzy among the bug carnivores much like we see with grizzlies and spawning salmon. By the time winter truly sets in and they must hibernate also, the carnivores have devoured enough bug maternals as to prune next year's potential bug population back to a level that the biome can sustain.

Exploding and collapsing each summer and winter, the bug population slowly works its way back and forth across the continent. Nest along the fringe of bug territory have more opportunities to gather food and produce more maternals while nests in the middle of bug territory are smaller and weaker. The carnivores at first make short work of the smaller nests in older territories and then follow the accidental migration of their food supply towards newer regions.

Over the years, a wave of nests will cross the continent closely followed by the carnivores only to hit the coastline and rebound back to the interior. The bugs' absence from those regions allows the populations of plants and animals there to increase until the next nesting wave slowly passes through. Almost like a wildfire and perhaps serving much the same "purpose", waves of bug infestations crawl year by year across the continent leaving devastation behind.

The Chamax sophonts made two horrific blunders. First, killing off the Chamax carnivores and, second, transporting the Chamax bugs to what was essentially an eden for them. For most of the year in the temperate zones temperatures didn't drop far enough at night to trigger hibernation while in the tropical zones temperatures didn't drop far enough at any time. Almost permanently awake, free of all predators, and surrounded by food that didn't recognize them as a threat, the bugs' population exploded. It was like a virgin field epidemic and just as catastrophic.

I have my theories as to why the Chamax sophonts realized all of this too late and why they weren't able to save their world, but that's for another time.


Regards,
Bill

 

[sabredog]

I like it, it's an excellent system coming from a different angle that works.

I was working from the opposite assumption that the thin atmosphere and cooler temps were a result of the stripped planet after the bugs had eaten everything in sight, even the plants since they are omnivores. So you ended up with a drop in oxygen, less liquid water, and the cold desert it seemed to be.

Either theory would work - the only problem with any theories about the bugs is that silly centuries-long hibernation.

 

[Whipsnade]

I like it, it's an excellent system coming from a different angle that works.

Sabredog,

Thanks. Your idea about the planet's UWP being partially a result of the Chamax Holocaust is a good one.

The story in DA5 mentions that The last enclave of greenery in a planet-wide desert was overrun in hours.... You can read that as saying the bugs had created the desert or you can fold the description into the planet's hydrography rating and posit the presence of large deserts before the bugs escaped their home continent.

I went with the latter and had the Chamax sophonts withdrawing to oases deep in the deserts in the hopes that flying maternals wouldn't reach there.

Either theory would work - the only problem with any theories about the bugs is that silly centuries-long hibernation.

Agreed. It's a suspender-snapper.

I wonder if the ships could be viewed as one big low berth? But then the machinery scavenged and used to save Raschev wouldn't work unless the temperature drop they create is part of a Chamax specific low berth technology?


Regards,
Bill

 

[sabredog]

Sabredog,

I wonder if the ships could be viewed as one big low berth? But then the machinery scavenged and used to save Raschev wouldn't work unless the temperature drop they create is part of a Chamax specific low berth technology?


Regards,
Bill

I think that would be logical (the temp drop aspect), but it would certainly be something worth selling to someone like SuSAG for researching into a more efficient method of cold sleep. Might help defray the costs of the Chamax devastation on Raschev, too. Smart adventurers could get a cut for themselves, too.

Maybe the temp drop is just to get the bugs (or what/whoever) into the hibernating "mood", then a secondary system takes over to keep them under until the system brings them out of it.

...and in the grand tradition of monster movies...is there another Chamax ship out there, somewhere, just waiting to unleash another devouring horde, or one might be somewhere on Chamax that didn't get used and might be a good excuse to send players back to look around a bit....????

 

[Peter Schutze]

centuries long hibernation is screwy but there are species on earth that hibernate for several years waiting for the next wet season .... Lake Eyre in Australia is one example that relies on 5-10 year waits between super floods.

Some of those species are not relying on the eggs/seeds to survive but also juveniles and adults that emerge during minor "wets" part way thru the long cycle to add a bit more so they store enough in total for the next main event

 

[Whipsnade]

Maybe the temp drop is just to get the bugs (or what/whoever) into the hibernating "mood", then a secondary system takes over to keep them under until the system brings them out of it.

Sabredog,

It's a stretch I'll admit, and I'm the goon who thought of it! But it sort of solves the problem.

...and in the grand tradition of monster movies...is there another Chamax ship out there, somewhere, just waiting to unleash another devouring horde, or one might be somewhere on Chamax that didn't get used and might be a good excuse to send players back to look around a bit....????

Oh, it's pretty much a given that other sleeper ships are out there. DA5 states so, even going as far as to remind GMs that not all of the ships will be carrying the Chamax bugs. Some the vessels will have their intended cargo aboard, the Chamax sophonts, and that somewhat stays everyone's hands. You simply blast the dam things out of the sky, you've got to wait until they land and then determine who or what is aboard. I even ran a small campaign based on that idea.

There are three worlds within one parsec of Alenzar/Chamax, Raschev in Foreven and Garoo and Uniqua in the Marches. Of the two in the Marches, only Uniqua has a biosphere and the Chamax sophonts would certainly be aware of that fact.

There's another world in Foreven with a biosphere two parsecs off but all maps of Foreven are, as of yet, non-canonical and it's debatable whether the ships would be launched on an 800-year journey towards that world when there are two targets "only" 400 years off.

If you think Rachev had troubles with the bugs, Uniqua would have even more. It's population is much less, only hundreds of thousands instead of millions, and it's indigenous technology is much worse too, TL 4. The planet also has captive government, it's owned by Garoo who has both the population and tech level to dispatch significant forces once the alarm is received. In fact, I've always thought Garoo would take advantage of the "crisis" to institute a "sky watch" off Raschev to "assist" that world which could quickly turn into a power grab.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Blue Ghost]

Adventure seed; go to Raschev and scour the area for some lost DNA of the once mighty apex chamax predator. Some Megacorp (Ling standard?) is offering a bounty for the mystery of how the chamax became a break out species, and what kept them in check prior to the catastrophe. The real aim is to re-engineer said predator for chamax control purposes.

 

[sabredog]

Adventure seed; go to Raschev and scour the area for some lost DNA of the once mighty apex chamax predator. Some Megacorp (Ling standard?) is offering a bounty for the mystery of how the chamax became a break out species, and what kept them in check prior to the catastrophe. The real aim is to re-engineer said predator for chamax control purposes.

hmmmmm.....I think I'll use that one myself!

 

[Blue Ghost]

Let us know how it works out :smirk:

 

[Whipsnade]

Sabredog & Blue Ghost,

Any ideas of where or how that scientific mission could find the DNA it needs?

Maybe something like those frozen mammoths folks occasionally come across in Siberia, Alaska, and Canada?


Regards,
Bill

 

[Blue Ghost]

That's kind of the whole mission, aint it? :devil:

 

[sabredog]

What about a chunk of glacier breaking off with a maternal embedded in it...or a hunter that fell into a hole with ice water in the bottom.

Either way, the critter is embedded in the ice and "hibernating" so the team can drill in for a core sample.

Or the Aliens thing and people go to Chamax and look for a nest armed with some freeze guns to zap a hunter with and then throw it in the back of the air/raft?

 

[Icosahedron]

A group of hunters were burrowing for a maternal in the early winter snow and got buried in an avalanche along with the maternal. Centuries pass, the snow gets packed to ice and passes down a glacier.

The explorers bring the ice aboard and hack out the hunters for DNA samples but while they are working, the maternal's egg sacs begin to thaw...

 

[sabredog]

...unbeknownst to the scientist bent over his microscope a juvenile hunter creeps into the lab through an open hatch...a sudden scream on the bridge intercom as the camera POV shows hands grabbing at the hatchway only to be dragged away as he is swarmed by juvenile hunters...

And its just too bad the ship had just jumped a couple hours ago, too.

 

[OIT]

Sabredog,

If you think Rachev had troubles with the bugs, Uniqua would have even more. It's population is much less, only hundreds of thousands instead of millions, and it's indigenous technology is much worse too, TL 4. The planet also has captive government, it's owned by Garoo who has both the population and tech level to dispatch significant forces once the alarm is received. In fact, I've always thought Garoo would take advantage of the "crisis" to institute a "sky watch" off Raschev to "assist" that world which could quickly turn into a power grab.

Ooohh, I like that idea!

 

[robject]

The biggest problem with them is the fact that they go into hibernation for "centuries" until another food source shows up. [...] But it makes a dandy place to hang a lantern as they say in show business when you want a plot device to lure in the characters who get suddenly swarmed by scary monsters on an otherwise deserted alien world.

More than that, it expands on a precedent first seen in classic Traveller, via (1) the low berth [pure technology], (2) fast drug [pharmacology], and (3) the psionic talent of awareness [magic]. All three of these are similarly suspender-snapping, and yet forward time travel appears to be a given in Traveller. Why not fill out the category by including a "physical" analogue?

 

[Whipsnade]

What about a chunk of glacier breaking off with a maternal embedded in it...or a hunter that fell into a hole with ice water in the bottom.

Sabredog,

Yeah, that's similar to my thinking. Knowing the exact mechanism by which the Chamax carnivore's corpse is preserved isn't really necessary, however. A GM can just remind the players of those Siberian/Alaskan mammoths(1) and no one will quibble.

And I think the SUSAG or LSP expedition is only going to find carnivore corpses too. Like you, I greatly dislike the centuries long hibernation ability DA5 suggests. The "Chamax Ships Chill Passengers First And Then Become Giant Low Berths" mechanism proposed in this thread is far more plausible IMHO.

We've also got to explain why Chamax bug nests are still alive four centuries after the Chamax sophonts had to abandon the planet. The bugs ate everything up and began hibernating, right? Well having them still alive 400 years later for the crew of the Shaarin Challenger to stumble across is just as bad as having hibernating-only bugs disembark after 400 year journey.

I'd say the Chamax bugs have been active and have been eating all those years, they've just been eating one another. The bugs strip a region and enter hibernation then, after a certain period, the maternal's internal "fat" stores reach a certain "bingo" point. She wakes hunters and sends them out looking for food, any food, and the usual inherent cannibalism prohibitions fall by the wayside. Those hunters range far enough to finally come across hibernating hunters belonging to another nest. When those hunters are attacked, that rouses their nest and a little Chamax vs. Chamax war kicks off.

One nest will win out and then have enough food to survive for a while longer. New maternals may even be produced during the period. One nice bit about this hibernate - cannibalism - hibernate cycle is that the number of Chamax bug nests will slowly dwindle over time. After stripping the biosphere, the bugs would have gone into hibernation at a certain "density", so many nests per given area. When the bugs turn to cannibalism, that density will drop. In some regions, such as islands, the bugs may even die out as wars between nests fatally damage both.

The whole process is going to somewhat resemble the sandkings from George R. R. Martin's (in)famous short of the same name.

Anyway, the process is going to explain why bugs were encountered in DA5 and why the members of our proposed DNA prospecting expedition will encounter bugs too.


Regards,
Bill

1 - A French explorers club around 1900 actually served meat from a recovered mammoth at one of their yearly dinners.

 

[robject]

Yeah, that's similar to my thinking. Knowing the exact mechanism by which the Chamax carnivore's corpse is preserved isn't really necessary, however. A GM can just remind the players of those Siberian/Alaskan mammoths(1) and no one will quibble.

This is related to one of my meta-plots revolving around the Chamaxi: some of the ones who survive the trip to one of the neighboring worlds will want to solve the problem and reclaim their homeworld... eventually. That sort of work could use a jump-start, i.e. an organization with leverage and an agenda, and therefore there's work for hungry Travellers.

 

[sabredog]

Sabredog,

I'd say the Chamax bugs have been active and have been eating all those years, they've just been eating one another. The bugs strip a region and enter hibernation then, after a certain period, the maternal's internal "fat" stores reach a certain "bingo" point. She wakes hunters and sends them out looking for food, any food, and the usual inherent cannibalism prohibitions fall by the wayside. Those hunters range far enough to finally come across hibernating hunters belonging to another nest. When those hunters are attacked, that rouses their nest and a little Chamax vs. Chamax war kicks off.

One nest will win out and then have enough food to survive for a while longer. New maternals may even be produced during the period. One nice bit about this hibernate - cannibalism - hibernate cycle is that the number of Chamax bug nests will slowly dwindle over time. After stripping the biosphere, the bugs would have gone into hibernation at a certain "density", so many nests per given area. When the bugs turn to cannibalism, that density will drop. In some regions, such as islands, the bugs may even die out as wars between nests fatally damage both.

The whole process is going to somewhat resemble the sandkings from George R. R. Martin's (in)famous short of the same name.

As the "food supply" of other nests dwindles I'm thinking the bugs themselves are going to through natural selection. Not a lot of major evolutionary changes could occur in just a few hundreds years probably, but more like a mechanism that helps ensure the survival of those few nests left.

If the bugs were really the voracious eaters they are described as, so much so that they ate up an entire planet ecology, then it probably wouldn't tke them too long to eat up eachother, either. They'd be going at it in nest wars, like you said.

But, what would the be the things that would allow one nest to survive over another? Mere numbers? Or like the sandkings do they get a little smarter? Adapt new hunting strategies, maybe cooperative ones? Not cooperative in the permanent sense, just allies of convenience until one side gets the edge in numbers after ganging up on and devouring a larger nest first.

I think too that maybe, and this hinges partially on my idea that one of the reasons the planet is cooler and with a thinner atmosphere now is that the bugs destroyed it's ecosystem, if that's true, then the bugs' metabolism is going to start slowing. Gradually, with the shorter and shorter periods of warm climate in between the freezing ones. Just incremental drops in the overall temp that allows the bugs to adapt without kicking in the hibernation mode.

An adaption for these cooler periods could be slower, smaller bugs...and smaller nests and maternals. Less calories needed - which is good for their long term survival because there's getting to be less nests to find. The big ones can still be around, but they are eventually going to be doomed by the smaller ones who need less to keep them going and not being able to find enough food to support their size. There is still the problem of that long hibernation thing, but if we assume your idea and combine it with a little adaption on the bugs' part to compensate for less food, a gradually cooling climate to adapt to, and the way they really seemed to take to an alien world when they got there (Rachev) it can start to make some more sense.

The bugs adapt easily and quickly to new environments - just if its too cold (but the potential could be there if there is maybe enough food available during the cold periods?), they might be capable of limited cooperation between nests if the environmental pressures are there (some kinds of ant nests will do the same, then turn on eachother when the need to cooperate is over and ants are the closest analog for Chamax bugs we have here), and if the ones found by the crew of the Sharin were small ones that have been living on scraps what were the really big, well fed ones like?

Probably like what the ones that ended up on Raschev would have eventually become like?

 

[sabredog]

More than that, it expands on a precedent first seen in classic Traveller, via (1) the low berth [pure technology], (2) fast drug [pharmacology], and (3) the psionic talent of awareness [magic]. All three of these are similarly suspender-snapping, and yet forward time travel appears to be a given in Traveller. Why not fill out the category by including a "physical" analogue?

It would definitely give you an idea on how competitive the megacorps would be to find a source of some natural anagathic enhancing metabolic or a safer method of cold sleep for low berthing. Both are good reasons, the first especially, for a sort of race to Chamax and to find those other ships.

With all the bad things either of those efforts entail happening to poorly informed ("Need to Know", sorry) Travellers who take those jobs. Very "Alien", isn't it?