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Based on the response to the final vote of my previous Anomaly run, I've decided to start another. Soem of the things I am changing up with this playthrough:

• Upgrade to version 1.6. Lots of little changes to both the base game and the DLCs. I have not purchased the Odyssey DLC yet, which is what enables gravships, so that won't be a feature for this runthrough.
• Roughly ten of my mods from the previous run do not work with this new version. Most of these were extra biomes and such, so not likely to have a big impact. The only one that anyone might notice was one of the funiture mods.
• Anomaly Storyteller. This AI storyteller incentivizes researching anomaly entities and related stuff, while slowing normal research. This is compensated with mundane research rewards as well as other postiive events the more anomaly research that is done.
• Custom scenario. I have defined a custome scenario entitled "CYS Gazette Galavant". This scenario is publically available on Steam if you are playing as well. The basic idea is the staff of the CYS Gazette were all in the office once day when a strange vortex appeared at the office door and drew them to some strange future world. This scenario gives us a fair amount of starting resources and 5 colonists to work with. These five will start with Anthraxus, RK, Fresh, Milton and Mr. Nobody. Suranna, TCat, and EndMaster will be our next recruits, which will cover everyone on the Gazette Discord.

We will, of course, be starting on a new world (although using the same world seed - chooseyourstory) and a new terrain spot. There is also a slight shift in the active factions, namely adding a cannibal pirate tribe and a nudist tribe.

If you would like to have your username used as a potential future recruit, please feel free to reply to this post.

I wanna be a floor scrubber again! Now with the addition that if you can edit me to hate stargirl.

This can and will be done.

I would love to be a potential future recruit. :)

Edit: Yes, if possible, I would like to hate Bezro as well. 

That relationship can be arranged. I have you on the list.

I'm honored to be a part of this new colony lol

You are in the initial group. See the notes about the scenario above. :)

It was a normal day at the office of the CYS Gazette. The next issue was due out tomorrow, and all but two stories were already done and edited. Everyone was just starting to pack up for the day, but the first person to the door was Anthraxus.

To his surprise the door of the office no longer opened onto Main Street, but instead revealed a swirling vortex of black, blue and purple light and gas. Anthraxus took a step or two back, calling out for everyone to check this out. Everyone drew closer to the door, getting a good look for themselves. Suddenly invisible hands seemed to grab at them all, pulling into the vortex. Everyone tried their best to escape, even Raina the office dog, but to no avail. Each was dragged into the swirling mysterious phenomona.

What happened within the vortex itself is unknown. No one can remember exactly when they lost consciousness. All everyone can recall is the office and the feeling of being pulled forward and some passage of time before opening their eyes here in this new place. There was no sign of the vortex nor of the office. They all stood, or knelt, in a small group in a broad flowered meadow surrounded by strange pink leaved trees. Just beyond the trees in any direction, the sounds of burbling water could be heard. A small hill rose up from the center of the small island, and just to south of that stood a towering monolith that seemed to pulse and shift in strange ways. Auroras of green, yellow, and red lights danced in the sky.

Everyone awoke at the same time, shocked to find themselves standing, dressed in new clothes with hoods and surrounded by a scattering of supplies. Something had changed in them in the transit as they were each convinced of the value of writing, to the point of literal religious fervor. The burdgeoning faith was not well defined, but it provided a strong emotional connection. As we started sorting through the supplies and exploring the area, we all realized that it seemed like we were in some way written over the existing bodies of other people. Faint and distant memories of this other life began slowly coming to each of us. If not for these memories and related skills, we would probably be doomed from the outset. There was no time to consider the moral and ethical implications of this, as we needed to make shelter and begin trying to figure out this new alien world we find ourselves on and how to survive long enough to find a way back home.

First thing first, we needed to know our immediate surroundings, so we quickly scaled the nearby hill or mountain. Our first real disagreement as a group was what it should count as, but from the peak we could see that we were on a sizable island in the middle of a river. There was a scattering of what could charitably be called mountains, but were really little more than sheer eruptions of stone out of ht ground. Their sides were so steep as to be practically unscalable. Numerous copses of various kinds of trees dotted the valleys between the escarpments. Somewhere in the distance a psychic drone that seemed to only impact the men in the group was ringing, setting nerves on edge.

After a quick conversation as everyone descended down again, we agreed on a small collection of buildings for barracks and workspaces, as well as a central warehouse building. Among the supplies we found a big seed book, so took advantage and planted several small gardens in some nearby rich soil since we needed more wood anyway.

Before we go much further, here is a closer look at our group and their mysteriously inherited skills. Everyone awoke in clothes of their favorite colors, and the hoods provide shelter from the weather and a certain religious comfort. Anthraxus, as the atheist of the group before the vortex, has issues recognizing and reconciling what this might mean, as well as the implanted religious faith that came with existing in this world.

Due to poor planning and everyone focused on cutting trees and getting the gardens going, not enough beds got made on the first day. This resulted in RK falling asleep in the one dining chair that got built and Fresh just laying down in the flowers outside the first barracks building. Because of this poor sleeping situation, Fresh fell asleep on a chair in the dining room that was built the next day. Not really giving his fellow colonists due consideration, RK wound up sitting on her while eating dinner.

Apparently sitting on Fresh satisfied whatever was causing the psychic drone, as that finally ended on the dawn of the third day. Intense work was on schedule for the third day. Two wind turbines and enough beds and bedrooms for everyone were finished. Additional gardens were marked out to help keep the turbines free of obstructing trees. While Milton and Anthraxus work on those, Fresh took a few moment so to work on her relationship with Rina, the office dog. As she chases the dog around the base, whatever was causing the previous obnoxious drone that was draggin the guys down, started droning again, this time focused on women.

By the end of the fourth day, Anthraxus put the finishing touches on all of the inital buildings, although temperature controls, particularly for the warehouse, are now high priority. A lot of conversations have been had about the need to research the monolith and figure out how it is related to how we wound up here. Milton volunteers to start this investigation and in alarmingly little time, he determines how to awaken it more fully.

Mere hours after the pall took hold and the monolith was awakened, a tiny figure stumbled into the area. It was a young girl named Mary Graf from the nearby Eastern Enmonla group. She seemed pretty lost, but had a few items that she might trade. As we waited for her to approach, three other strangers appeared from the west. This trio is begging for 37 silver to rescue the fourth member of their barbershop quartet. We have currently have 1000 silver, so not a big sacrifice for us, but they aren't a member of any of the factions, so it's just moral goodwill most likely. Alternately, I could designate some prisoner sleeping areas and capture them.

---

So to the votes:

Vote One - What to do with the beggars?

• Option 1: Give them the silver they need. See what, if anything, they give us in return.
• Option 2: Try to capture one or more of them and see if they can be converted/recruited.

Vote Two - Mundate Research - Currently researching wall-mounted heaters and coolers (new tech from a mod), but where should we go next?

• Option A: Smithing and Machineing - This is the most expensive option, but will get two keystone techs out of the way.
• Option B: Soups and Stews - open up some cheap food options
• Option C: Drugs - Not only the standard Rimwolrd drug production options but a industrial smokeleaf mod I've added.

This vote will close tomorrow (8/17) at 8pm eastern.

Vote 1: Option 1 for Giving the Silver

Vote 2: Option 2 for Soups and Stews

And of course, pursuing research with the Monolith is of paramount importance.

Sure, I'll vote for all this too.

Option two and option c, because who doesn’t like drugs and kidnapping?

For once I agree with Bezro. This is my vote as well. 

Well, our vote ended in a two way tie. As it has gotten later than I thought, I will let the vote stay open until 10pm tomorrow (8/18). Hopefully someone will jump in and break the tie for us.

option 2 and option c

RK broke our tie. We will be going with
Option 2: Try to capture one or more of them and see if they can be converted/recruited.
Option C: Drugs - Not only the standard Rimwolrd drug production options but a industrial smokeleaf mod I've added.

Knowing that Bezro was plotting his attack, the plan was to let him draw in closer before we engaged with him. However, as he wandered, RK bumped into him while hunting a deer. The fight was pretty close, but RK came out on top. Lots of wild hairy beast was hauled back to the base that afternoon. The recently converted Suranna also took charge with trying to convert her father, Endmaster.

As was decided in the last update, Fresh removed Shakes from the prison room and released him to find his own way in the world. He wasted no time in exiting the map. Will he be a prostelizing force for us? Will he be eaten by cannibal pirates within a few days? We may never know. Suranna continues to focus on converting Endmaster. It's not totally clear why but everyone that had been previously so focused on converting TCat chooses to take a break on that for awhile, even though her certainty was sitting at around 2% so one more conversion attempt would do it.

As we are simply waiting on TCat to make the switch to shut down the current prison room and officially turn it into a research lab, Bezro is stuck in one of the spare rooms. Milton takes the time to patch him up well, and conversion attempts will start when he regains consciousness. The next morning, the rising sun brought with it a sizable trade caravan from Eastern Emonla.

The traders had a lot of stuff, including a couple of worthwhile new books. By trading some of the drugs and other things, we acquired the books for only a few hundred silver. The other book they had was about a specific tech and the other was a slighltly less effective reaction book than the one we already have.

These new books will help bolster skills that everybody in the group should have. Fresh finally gets around to talking to TCat again, and the other of Endmaster's daughters is converted back to the try Cystian path and joins the group. This will let us drop the "prison" label for this room so researching will be a little more effective. The difference in advancement of anomaly research versus mundane in this story is quite stark. We are at 130 something out of 500 on the Drug lab, but have already finished research into Entity Confinement and Void Provocation and started on Bioferrite Extraction.

As the day draws to an end, Milton is out hunting and stumbles across a grove of Harbinger trees. These strange meaty flora are an example of anomalous entities. We may want to harvest these as they can yield twisted flesh and bioferrite, and another grove is inevitable anyway. Back at the camp the trade caravan packs up an leaves as the sun sets, and Mr. Nobody does the rounds of talking on our potential converts.

Even though Suranna had said she wanted to be the one to finally break through to Endmaster, Mr. Nobody decided to take a few minutes and the conversation is what it takes. Endmaster converts to Cystianism and as determined by Vote 3, was designated as the Mod. His promotion ceremony was attended by everyone and End's speech was well-received by everyone as well. It was a little long, but he made an excellent statement as to his many features that will let him maximize the utility of the position.

All of the positive things that have been going on have really given morale a sky-high boost. Fresh is a good example of the kind of buffs that everyone is currently experiencing. As if in the response to our overall good luck since our appearance in this place, distant moans reach us as a pack of shamblers, little more than rotten animated corpses, wanders into the area. There is no way to tell, but one can't help but think that the monolith some how calls to them. They are slow in movement and not near any resources we are currently working on, so we will ignore them for now.

Life in the colony, especially with our three new members, is busy and gregarious. As the new Mod, everyone is interested in talking to Endmaster. Anthraxus mentions some of the latest theories that he and Milton have been kicking around to End when they pass in the dining room, while TCat talked about dice games. Conversations about cards, dice, backgammon, and other board games is fairly frequent around the base. We also receive notice of a independent farming work camp nearby. They are growing peanuts, according to rumors, so their supplies would mesh well with ours if we ever get desperate enough to raid them.

Amid the other chores and projects around camp, including building an room for TCat, Mr. Nobody always carves out time to keep talking to Bezro, moving him ever closer to conversion, regardless of the strangeness of Mr. Nobody's topics of conversation. As he still has loyalty to his old crew, he will have to be recruited afterwards, unlike End and his daughters who were not wild and feral and not part of a group. Suranna goes out and cuts down one of the Harbinger trees.

Some one out on the east side of the island gathering berries noticed that the shamblers had all collapsed and started to rot. They aren't worth studying at this point, but like the Harbinger trees, more groups of shamblers are inevitable. In talking about that, Milton and Anthraxus realize the there is likely a ritual that could summon them, which might be useful to do if we are raiding a base or something in the future. At the same time as we noticed this threat had resolved itself, the perimeter awareness alerts us that some terrible genetic monstrosities have randomly wandered into the area. Ther horrific beasts are maddened with bloodlust and hunger for the flesh of man! The only saving grace is that they are sickened and likely to die within a few days regardless.

These terrible beasts prove to be a pair of chickenbears, aberrant fowl with bear like jaws and claw at the tip of each wing. With an ominous and blood-thirsty clucking roar, they charge across the wilderness towards the base. Almost everyone was in the dining room/storage room/kitchen, just chilling, chatting and smoking.

Anthraxus happens to catch one of the monsterous chickenbears just on the other side of the river while out hunting, and Fresh handles the other that actually makes it as far as the camp. "We will feast on these genetic freaks soon!" says Anthraxus, quickly butchering and preparing the chickenbear meat with some freshly picked peanuts. Almost as a mini-celebration, almost everyone hangs out for a while afterwards, watching Anthraxus cook and chit-chatting.

The next day we had two surprising new arrivals. The first is a passive moose that self-tames and wanders in from the south. If we had time to build a pen it might be worthwhile to keep it, but as we are planning a big road trip, we slaughter the nice moose for it's meat. Just a few hours later, Two giant anacondas also self-tame and join the colony. We could kill them as well, but they will stay around without a pen, and are agressive. As they may be useful, we will keep them for now.

The next couple of days are fairly forgettable. Two new rooms get built, some steel gets mined, more meals get prepped, conversion attempts continue on Bezro, and Anthraxus becomes inspired in research. Thanks to this inspiration by the end of this update we will have reached 194 out of 500 research points needed.

Final preparations for the expedition to the Research Post are underway. We have more than 100 meals stocked up. If only our cotton harvest had been a little more bountiful, we might have been able to make bed rolls. Plans are in the works for that, but honestly making some parkers and dusters for the cooling temps are slightly higher priority. We still have a little less than 7 days to get to the post. Our fairly friendly neighbors, the Legua Treaty, notify us of a nearby prison camp that is holding some of their people. They are offering an orbital power beam targeter as repayment for performing a rescue. This is an immensely powerful area of effect weapon, although only single use. The prison camp sites about a day and a half away to the north.

Because the mood is so high around camp. Suranna becomes inspired. What is she inspired to do? Cook up a storm? Research a bunch? Cut down every tree on the island? No, nothing so useful. Instead she is inspired to party and make merry. Jumping on this inspiration she sends out the call for the first Writing Competition. Everyone gathers near the monolith and spends the next couple hours dancing, writing, and pitching ideas.

While no permanent works got written during the party, several rumors were put together to reveal that there is almost certainly a nearby ancient complex that might be worth exploring. We can only carry so much stuff, but depending on how the research post goes, we might be able to stop by on the way back home. Everyone wanders back off to their tasks, still chatting about various topics.

After the party, Anthraxus could not get the whispers and twisting marks of the monolith out of his mind. The motions and mantras of dark rituals churned in his thoughts. Research had already begun on a ritual that should summon a random person from somewhere, and soon Anthraxus will be able to lead the group in executing it. Perhaps once we return from our field trip. Speaking of which, preparations are finally finished. Everyone in camp, including Bezro and the animals, loaded up and headed out for the Research Post. We have nearly four days of food, although much of it will likely rot before then. We are also taking most of the silve and the extra crappy weapons sitting on shelves in case we run into anyone willing to trade on the road.

The first day of travel was uneventful, but as we were only a few hours out from research post we bumped into a sizable Legua Treaty trade caravan. They had several megafauna specimens to help carry their goods. Of particular interest, we negotiate for some pemmican and a nice recurve bow. It's not as good as the pistols, but probably better than the clubs and hatchets everyone else is armed with.

We move on with our new supplies and literal minutes before we reach the Post we receive a surprising message. An AI that calls itself Charlon Whitestone reaches out to notify us of it's location, nearly half a wold away. It promises that if we can find it and defend it while it starts up, we could use it to escape the planet. It's not a return home directly, but perhaps bringing a FTL capable ship back to Earth might be a notable achievement for the staff of the Gazette.

We will leave this update on this cliffhanger, but assuming that we don't all die at the Research Post, we have one course of action worth voting on.

---

Vote One: Raid a work site. There are three worksites near our base. Should we attack one once we have gotten home and healed up?

1. Don't go raiding. We'll deal with them later maybe.
2. Component Mining site. They have 12 components on hand as guaranteed loot and are hostile, but not part of a larger faction.
3. Red Cliff League Hunting site. They have 62 units of hunting leather in loot and are members of a friendly, although unencountered, faction.
4. Farming work site. They have 339 units of peanuts to loot, and a members of a friendly minor faction.

I vote 4

Working on the Research Post summary, but this vote will be closed at 10pm tonight (9/7)

I also vote 4. The friendly, minor faction seems to pose the least threat, especially after an intensive quest.

Voting for #2

Wow I haven't checked the other Rimworld threads in awhile, but the very existence of this thread is a SPOILER.

I thought I would see how being very clear on what to expect, at least at the start, affects engagement.

Following the dictates of the blood-thirsty vote, everyone went to go capture as many of the beggars as we could. We met them across the river from the base. The one-sided firefight resulted in Kim and Polis, the two adults, getting dropped by headshots. Shakes, their child, ran for the hills, but we were able to chase him down and capture him. Unfortunately he is so bitter for our heartless treatment that he will never join us, but we should be able to convert him to the Cystian religion. Then if we should release him or even sell him a slave he might start converting people out there for us. It's a slim chance but certainly possible.

 

In addition to the the waste of the beggars for their crappy equipment and the additional mouth to feed while we work to convert Shakes, everyone feels surprisingly bad about the whole thing, resulting in a moderately long lasting debuff to everyone's mood. Milton gives a demonstration of how badly crippled our mundane research is with this story teller. Both Milton and Fresh have a total of 139% research speed modifiers and even with that we only only generating a few research points per day.

 

Over the next day or two, everyone continues to putter away at things around the base, including working on converting Shakes and research, both anomalous and mundane. The freezer gets built for the most part, and lots of vegetables get planted. There was a sudden surprise of a squirrel going rabid and trying to attack RK, although he was able to easily handle it. Then we got the notificaiton of three surprisingly familiar faces that wandered on to the map. A man and his two daughters, staffers of the Gazette that happened to have been out on assignment when the vortex happened. Endmaster, Suranna and TCat had apparently been drawn to this world as well, but separated from the rest of us. Their minds had been scrambled, making them devotees of a religion focused on smoking weed all the time (Marauding Garden).

 

As Fresh, Mr. Nobody and Milton approached their confused and discombobulated friends, they split up, each approaching on a slightly different route. Mr. Nobody happens to pass near an oddly smooth wall of stone. He is momentarily overwhelmed by a pulse of malevolent psychic power from the other side of the wall. Some unknown ancient danger awaits begin revealed. But that is a problem for a different day. Fresh quickly captured Endmaster as even though he did not seem to know her name he still seemed to recognize her face and tone. Suranna and TCat, however, had no such familiarity with Milton and Mr. Nobody and had to be forcibly detained.

 

 

Getting everyone settled in the impromptu prison/dining room/research workroom and patched up was accomplished quickly and without too much trouble. Some initial conversion conversations were had with Endmaster as well.

 

As things settled down, and we tried to focus on cranking out enough food and meals for our nearly douled population. Temperatures have also begun to swing pretty wildly, so we are expanding the general workroom to add a tailoring bench to make some coats and clothes for our prisoners. As this planning goes on, interspersed with conversations about board games, we get notification of a single man raid by the Vemon Psychers. Milton and Rina quickly intercepted the raider and killed him with the first shot.

 

Shortly after Milton's skillful resolution of the raid, RK decided everyone could use some perking up and threw a party. Lots of unusual topics were discussed during the party, and it was notable how much focus Fresh started to pull from everyone by the end. The party carried on far into the night.

 

 

We were awoken the next morning by the arrival of a large trade caravan from the Legua Coalition. They are a very chatty group and wind up hanging out for a really long time. Working on converting/recruiting/returning to sanity our friends Endmaster, TCat and Suranna is a high priority and almost everyone takes a little bit of time each day to talk to them. Even so, progress is slow.

 

Fresh takes the lead on talking with the trade caravan. They have a decent price on a large count of pemmican, which will be immediately useful for addressing food shortages. We can easily cover the cost with just some random leathers and the dozen cigars that were in our supplies when we appeared. RK also adjusts priorities on hunting for more animals to include in meals. Anthraxus gets a lucky inspired cooking streak, so we are starting to get a little ahead of our immediate food needs.

 

For several days, the camp falls into a steady rhythm. Fresh focuses on researching and converting our prisoners. Mr. Nobody works on building walls of new rooms on the base and converting our prisoners. RK hunts and cuts trees, while Anthraxus focuses on harvesting rice and potatoes from the gardens and cooking. Milton spends his time split between mining, cutting down trees and construction.

 

It becomes evident that Endmaster keeps a far different sleep schedule to everyone else. Most nights, there is some period of time where everyone but he is asleep and he just paces the room. Planning and plotting no doubt. As the barracks expansion is almost done, we may move him to a private room just to improve security for everyone. In one of those new rooms, RK has a fright as an arctic wolf cornered him. He escaped with out a couple minor bites, but it could have gone far worse.

 

The trade caravan finally moves out and the very next day, Mr. Nobody finally converts Shakes. He is still unshakeable in his unwillingness to join our group, even though he agrees with our philosophical tenants. To see how it impacts conversion rates, Endmaster is also moved to a private prison room. The entire base is dealing with rolling blackouts, so we have started work on a third windmill.

 

Another single man raid, this time from the Ghostface Rig, a cannibal pirate gang, came charging in. He stumbles across RK out breaking down some ruins and gets shot to death before a rescue directive could be issued. It is noteable that Glas, as he was known, while proving a hapless threat did drop a dozen handrolled joints. Several of our staff enjoy the green, as do all of our prisoners but Shakes, so these aren't likely to last long. Our own garden is fairly close to maturity, so we may have homegrown soon.

In between everything else going on, Milton has periodically slipped over to the Monolith and studied the strange twisting runes and markings on it's surface. One afternoon, various ideas clicked in his mind and he had a breakthrough in the study of the monolith. It is some kind of coinduit for phsyic energy, linked directly to some distant location. What and where that location is is still unclear. Additionally, Milton has unlocked a translation key for the monolith, meaning that future research on it will yeild more information.

 

In an unexpected blessing, a book, some steel and some components fell from the sky as Milton began walking way from the monolith. The book is of particular interest as it is a nearly 200 year old novel that is impressively relaxing to read. Later that same day, we also achieved our first radio intercept. The transmissions included the infomation we would need to make the two and half day trek to reach what is rumored to be an abandoned research post. An ominous wave of deja vu swept over the entire encampment.

 

To celebrate the breakthrough and to take advantage of bonus conversion powers, we built a ritual site next to the monolith. Once this mandala-like steel art piece was finished, we officially decreed Milton as our Founder and leader. Milton gave a verbose speech that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. This resulted in a noteable mood buff for everyone, particularly Milton.

 

 

Inspired by this significant event, and perhaps angling for the Mod designation that still needs to happen, Fresh took another crack at TCat and Suranna. TCat is still balancing on the edge of conversion, but Suranna converted to Cystianism and joined the group. Almost before Suranna can even get settled into her new room on the expanded barracks, we get notification of another single man raid. Surprisingly, this raid is not a Gazette staff member, but still one whose name and nature spoke of some strange familiarity.

 

That raid will be resolved soon enough and Endmaster and TCat will convert after the next 1-3 attempts, so our base already begins to expand. On to the votes!

---

We have more to touch on than simple research (which is really moving painfully slow).

Vote One: What to do with Shakes? He cannot be recruited and is just another mouth to feed and back to clothe.

1. Option 1: Release him. He is a converted Cystian and may spread our religion on his own out in the wild.
2. Option 2: Sell him. We can hold on to him until a slaver caravan comes by and we can then sell him off. This will likely be a strong mood debuff for most of the group as our religion currently looks down on slavery, but could be good money or a good trade for items.
3. Option 3: Harvest him. If we want to go fuly bloodthirsty, we can harvest his organs. Because he is young and in good health his organs may actually be worth more than he is. This probably will also be a mood debuff, although it may only impact whoever does the surgeries.
4. Option 4: Harvest and release. We could also harvest a bunch of organs from him without killing him and then release him. This is kind of splitting the negative impact of harvesting with taking the time to heal him up afterwards before cutting him loose.

Vote Two: Research Post Quest. Should we take this on, or leave it until we are better equipped?

1. Vote A: Ignore it. We are strong enough yet and need more weapons.
2. Vote B: Risk it. Send as many people as we can equip weapons too and bring back as much as they can carry.

Vote Three: Designate a Mod. Who should get the Mod title? This person gets bonus abilities in healing and converting people.

1. Vote I: Fresh.
2. Vote II: RK
3. Vote III: Anthraxus
4. Vote IV: Mr. Nobody
5. Vote V: Suranna
6. Vote VI: TCat
7. Vote VII: Endmaster

These votes will close on 8-26-25 at 10pm.

This vote will close in 45 minutes.

1. Option 1 for not involving slavery or blood.
2. Option 2 because the reward can be worth it. Good luck.
3. EndMaster.

1. Option 1 seems to be the only one without longterm negative impact to mood, so I'm voting for that.
2. I'm not falling for that, not after last game. Vote A.
3. I was initially going to vote for End, but seeing as he hasn't been converted to Cystianity yet and we don't want to spread the wrong ideoligion, I'll vote for Fresh. She seems to be doing the most conversion attempts so far and has the highest social skill.

For End and TCat, that promotion (and their recruitment) would only occur after they have fully converted. Tcat will convert on the next attempt. End will take 2-3 more, but will happen in short order regardless.

Fresh does have the highest Social skill across the board, which probably should weigh in her favor.

1 B VII

I vote for 1, B, and VII

Vote 1: Option 1

Vote 2: Vote B

Vote 3: I for Fresh

Voting is now closed.

Results

Vote One: Release him. He is a converted Cystian and may spread our religion on his own out in the wild.

Vote Two: Risk it. Send as many people as we can equip weapons too and bring back as much as they can carry.

Vote Three: Endmaster

We all arrived at the abandoned Research Post. It was a massive symmetrical structure of granite set among a grassy rolling hillside near a small pond. The anacondas immediately slithered into the underbrush, looking for wild things to hunt as we marched towards the closest entrance to the building, the north door. By the time we had gotten to it, one of the anacondas had picked a fight with both a cheetah and a bear.

Tattered banners flapped in the breeze on flagpoles to either side of each of the doors into the complex. Ancient alien printing could be barely made out on the shredded and tattered fabric, but without more context it was impossible to decipher what they may have said. The door opened with surprising ease. A long hallway with regularly spaced doors extended before us. Two light columns still shown towards the end of the hall. We spread out with the melee fighters taking the lead and the shooters covering them.

As Endmaster and the other melee folks opened the first door to reveal a small courtyard. The flagstones that had been laid were still mostly in place, although weathering and who knows what else had exposed a few spots of bare earth. As they were looking, with a meowing cluck, a genetic monstrosity recognizable as some abomidable chickencat launched itself from the shadowy ceiling. Anthraxus, Milton and Fresh all got hits on it in rapid succession and dropped it before it could be a threat. A quick peek showed that the other door also opened onto a small courtyard, in even worse condition than the first.

The next two rooms proved to be filled with ruined ancient equipment and unidentifiable steel slag chunks. Other than the light tubes, nothing seemed to be even worth salvaging. All the internal electronics were rusted and corroded, but at least no other monstrosities were lying in wait for us.

Finally, we opened the southern door to reveal the heart of the research post. A huge archowomb, a unbelievably complex machine used to develop and force grow massive genetic hybrids. Based on some research I have done this is a key requirement for growing the crowning jewel of genetic manipulation - the archotech centipede. Given our slow research progress, this would be a VERY long term objective, but would pretty much remove all military concern for most things. It and a mechanoid chip, another critical piece of genetic manipulation hardware, were the only useful things in the center of the base. The westernmost door was oddly cold, and we intiially overlooked the doors that opened into non-cardinal hallways, so we decided to head east first. We had barely stepped into the eastern hallway when were were greeted by the baleful neigh and skitter claws of a massive Spiderhorse. Endmaster led the charge and the shooters opened fire. During the fight Endmaster was knocked to the ground, dropping the food and medicine he was carrying and losing his right hand.

The spiderhorse was cut down before it could cause any other significant damage. Hoping to find some glitterworld medicine in the ruins the group focused on exploring side rooms while Endmaster bandaged up his own wounds. Unfortunately the only thing worth salvaging that was found was a package of harmonoboosters, additives used during genetic manipulation work to help insure the desired gene expression occurs. By the time everything had been explored, Endmaster has tended his wounds and was ready to keep going. Fortunately, the spiked club he was using only needs one hand.

We went down the south eastern hallway, which opened into a decrepit lab. There was a genoframe on the floor, a needed component for any kind of genetics work although this one was obviously shoddy and worn. As we were leaving, planning to return after we had searched the rest of the facility, a wolf with a massive thrumbo horn emerging from its forehead charged at us from some hiding spot in the ruined lab equipment. It got a couple of grusome slashes in on Suranna and TCat, but no permanent wounds before it was slaughtered. To the south, we encountered a very ape-like Humanoid paragon. While they may be talkitive and personable in some settings, this one was mad with rage and presumed hunger. Other than the chickencat, this was the beast most easy to deal with.

Conversely, the Mantistanis that we found in the freezer hallway to the west was a true terror. It was only sheer luck and carful micromanagement of the melee fighters that let us handle the worst idea of the geneticists that previously ran this outpost without any crippling injuries. The freezer of the base housed ancient batteries that still held charge and functional coolers that held the freezer at an unbelievable -300 something degrees farenheit. It was so cold, we could use the hallway outside as just a regular freezer. The last beastie we had to deal with was a Thrumbolope, a bizarre combonation of a Thrumbo and a Boomalope. As fierce as the Mantistanis was, this creature actually scared me more as boomalope typically explode with noteable force when they die. As this beast was even larger than a fully grown boomalope I was genuinely concerned that it's death might destroy a significant portion of the base.

Fortunately, this fear proved mostly unfounded. We were lucky to down the thrumbolope and have time to back well away before it bled out. The explosion when it died was enough to rattle the walls, but actually did far less damage than I thought it would. With all of the genetic monsters cleared we took some time to treat our wounds and organize the loot we recovered and some of the stuff we salvaged from the area.

Just as we were setting to trying to strip the place of anything worth hauling away, we found out that a pack of mechanoids were nearing our location. Fighting them is certainly not worth the risk so we have a suddenly shorted timeframe to scrap what we could. It was a shame that all of the genetic monsters here started to rot as soon as they dropped, as several of them would have provided dozens of meals worth of meat. Just as well, who knows what that might have done to our own genetics.

Even as we were focused on packing up everything we could, Rimworld never stops. Glancing up through the permanent but still always fascinating aurora in the sky, we could faintly pick out minute flashes of light as some number of spaceships flared into combat far, far overhead. While usually something we could ignore, there was always the risk that great flaming chunks of space debris could fall anywhere on the planet. Not that anything could be done about it as all of the colonists had left on this expedition, but I looked back at our home base. Much to my surprise, not only were there a few chunks of space debris that had landed near the base fortunately without starting any fires, but several survivors of the space battle had crash-landed in the general area. Unfortunately, they were all critically wounded and there was absolutely no chance of the gazette staff getting back in time to save them.

We finished gathering and organizing the loot and headed back for home. There was a surprisingly large amount of genetic manipulation supplies left in the base, as well as a sizable amount of hempcrete and steel. We loaded up as much as we could and left the area well before the mechanoid threat closed in. The march back took two and half days, and we chose to push for home due to low food supplies. We'll run back out to the nearby ruins soon enough.

Just a few hours before we got back to the base, we received notification of another delapidated genetics research lab nearby. Knowing what such a lab is likely to yeild should prove interesting to the drive to follow up on this second lab. I'm not sure when it happened, but apparenlty a couple of cargo pods dropped some simple wooden weapons near the base. Literally less than an hour outside the base a single british shorthair cat, driven mad with disease, ambushed the group. It was destroyed quickly, but not before it manages to scratch Fresh's foot. In the rush to get home, we did not take time to treat the wound. Of course this lead to a full blown infection by the time we actually got back home.

As everyone starts to unload the loot from the expedition and Fresh gets someone to look at her infected foot, the mood of everyone, even our prisoner convert Bezro, is hopeful and pleased. Bezro tagged along on the trip and was very well behaved. I don't know that any real progress on his conversion was made during the adventure, but having him along allowed for a little extra weight and made sure he didn't starve to death while everyone was gone. Just as we wrap things up for this update and plan for the next, an entire flock of ducks self-tames and comes waddling up to the base. Guess we need to build a pen real quick as ducks are a great source of both meat and eggs and breed quite quickly.

Sorry for the delay everyone. Got distracted with other games for a bit. This will be a short update because of the time crunch on a proposal I almost completely missed.

As we expected the base site was littered with bodies that had fallen from the sky while no one was here. Between digging more graves to put them in, we also get the pen built for the ducks. As we get the last of the bodies buried, a bulk trader from Eastern Eumonla arrived, although they are meandering at the top of the map for some reason and everyone is busy, so we will wait for them to walk to us.

Later that evening there was another crack as a trio of pods fell from the clouds. We expected them to be more injured or dead spacers, but instead it proves to carefully packed and sealed fancy cocktails. These will certainly be a moral boost for everyone! Fresh has continued to delve into the mysteries of the monolith and proven that it links to some interdimensional void. This breakthrough has increased her interest in researching further.

As if to prove that darkness and twisted strangeness moves on the land, it also becomes common knowledge that Mr. Nobody and Suranna have drawn close enough to be an official couple. We shall see what the social impacts of this strange new development are. So distracted by these rapid developments, we almost missed an offer that came in over the radio. Lillith Luxemborg, the leader of Eastern Eumonla, reached out to ask if we would take delivery of 90 toxic wastepacks in exchange for either some Advanced Components (which will not be useful for quite a long time given our research speed), Glitterworld Medicine and Plasteel (both immediately useful, although the Plasteel less so), or a Psychich Soothe Pulser and some Gold (Useful for trading or helping with mental breaks). These wastepacks will create a large polluted area that will exist for a long, long time.

---

So just one big vote to resolve before we can do anything else: should we accept the wastepacks, and if so, what reward should we take?

Vote One: Wastepack Drop

1. Option 1: Accept and take the Advanced components
2. Option 2: Accept and take the Glitterworld medicine and Plasteel
3. Option 3: Accept and take the psychic soothe pulse and gold
4. Option 4: Reject the wastepacks (slight ding to reputation with that faction)

This vote will be open until sometime Monday (9/29) evening.

If the wastepacks are accepted, is there a place to store them? I suppose it would be inconvenient to drive them all the way back to the research post with conveniently cold freezers. If it is likely to cause the nearby environment to become toxic, I'll vote for 4, but if that's less of a risk, I'll go for 2 since both items are currently useful.

If they drop like the last game, all of the wastepacks will drop at a random non-roofed spot on the map. They will pollute an area roughly 25-50% larger than their initial landing zone if not frozen. I'm pretty sure I have a mod in that will make the pollution naturally fade over a timeframe of years, but it will make a section of the map fairly unusable for an extended length of time. I think the pollution can be cleaned up, but I don't think we have the technology to do it and it will probably go away before we get there.

Alright, I'll stick with option 2 then.

I'll go for Option 2 as well

This vote will close in 2 hours.

Option 2 locked in.

So we return to our little colony without a several week unexpect hiatus. I also realized that I have not shown the full base since the very beginning, so here is a view of the base as it stands. There are three barracks buildings, a double walled freezer just north of the monolith and ideogram. Attached to the freezer is general storage, dining and work area. in the upper right is a building that current holds the research table and recreation facilities. The room to the north is working space for making some bed rolls and will eventually provide space for entity containment.

As dictated by the last vote, we have accepted the wastepack offer in exchange for the glitterworld medicine and plasteel. Unfortunately, when they arrived they landed much closer to the base than is generally desirable. Since we can't just leave them where they are without threatening the ducks, so a dump site was designated in a little pocket cave on the southern edge of the map. Hauling is set as a high priority for everyone and it is hovering around freezing outside, so they should be moved before they present a problem. We already have the medicine and plasteel put away.

The caravan from Eastern Eumonla finally meandered down to the base. Fresh spoke with Malone, the leader of the caravan, and we negotiated buying some new books in exchange for a bunch of peanuts and several small scraps of various kinds of leathers. Our ducks would have fetched $143 silver each, so once they have had some time to breed, they will become an easy money and food source.

The books we got are pretty interesting. Vector's Research on Manufacturing improves crafting skill, which is really useful for working on most production tables. The other one has the longest title that I've seen on a book in Rimworld, and I hope it will help provide research points towards some topics to get around our general researching limitations. And who doesn't want to know how to make cheese?

Suranna and RK were the first to grab some of the wastepacks to haul off, but almost everyone carried a least a couple over the next few days. Before all of the wastepacks could be moved, however, there was an ominous rumbling from just north of the duck pen.

Suddenly the ground fell away to reveal a deep pit and strange fleshy beasts with a long finger-like spike leapt out! This strange anomolous entity does open up a new Dark Research topic, being able to summon them.

Fortunately Fresh, Anthraxus and Milton were in the base and all armed with pistols. Of the three fleshbeasts that emerged, one wandered into the three of them and was exploded in a hail of bullets. One moved south and ran into TCat. Good luck for her, Suranna had just come around the corner and her axe incapacitated the flesh beast quickly. The third one didn't stand a chance with everyone focused on it.

Two of the three flesh beasts were not instantly killed in the fight, so we quickly setup a holding spot for it. We also set down plans for an actual holding platform, but as long as everybody keeps the doors closed the holding spot is strong enough for a flesh beast. Milton took some time to treat the flesh beasts wounds. Now we will be able to research it as well as the monolith.

To make sure that the threat was fully handled, Endmaster went and filled in the hole the flesh beasts emerged from. No guarantee there won't be another hole somewhere else, but at least this one is no longer a concern. Instead we have to worry about the dropping temperature. Our folks could really use some parkas, but we need leather or cotton for that. Our cotton plants are not well matured, but someone can get on harvesting them. We also have lots of critters running around, so hunting priority gets bumped up. After taking out some hares and porcupines, RK set his sights on a large alphabeaver. Teh ornery thing did not appreciate being shot, so squared up with RK.

RK subpar shooting skills means he is only able to land a couple of hits on the alphabeaver as it charged, but the subsequent melee went quickly and in RK's favor with only minor injuries.

As RK headed back to camp with the beaver body to treat his wounds, we received an interesting request over the radio. The Duf'fwomursh Nation, a fierce and hostile neanderthal tribe, wants to use one of our researchers to help them finish a project. Their research post is 1.8 days travel away, but there is no real indication of how long that person(s) will be tied up. On the plus side, we would get some of the research completed and it will improve relations with that faction, assuming they are honest about things.

If that wasn't enough excitement, the wound in RK's leg developed an infection. Mr. Nobody was quite timely in treating it, and while it hasn't completely passed, it is well on it's way. The rest of the evening was quiet, although we still don't have enough leather, and we need more heaters in the main barracks building. Then, of all the ungrateful actions, Bezro ups and tries to escape!

---

So we have a few things to vote on this time. Voting will close Saturday evening.

Vote One: What to do with Bezro? Given that his source is banned from the forums, do we still want him here?

1. Option 1: Let him run away.
2. Option 2: Kill him.
3. Option 3: Recapture and continue to convert/recruit him.

Vote Two: Researcher request - Do we send someone?

1. Option A: Ignore the request.
2. Option B: Squad up and attack the research post. No idea what this will be like.
3. Option C: Send Milton, our best researcher.
4. Option D: Send RK, our second best researcher.
5. Option E: Send Mr. Nobody, our third best researcher.
6. Option F: Send Fresh, our fourth best researcher.

Voter Two-A: If we are traveling anyway, should we stop at the nearby ancient ruin?

1. Option I: Stay focused and just do the research thing.
2. Option II: Stop by the ancient ruin on the way to the research post.
3. Option III: Stop by the ancient ruin on the way back.

Kill Bezro

(I haven't read the rest yet, just want to make sure to get that one in there.)

I vote option 2, option D, and option III. 

The voting will close at 10pm Eastern. If anyone wants to save Bezro, now is the time.

The is also another corellary to Vote Two, a Vote Two-B if you will: If we are sending someone, should we send others with them (better protection and more carrying capacity but lose of production at the base)? If so, who/how many?

Well, looks like Stargirl gets a sweep on the votes (especially since Mizal is a one issue voter).

3, D and III respectively

As dictated by the vote, Bezro's time has come. Endmaster, Anthraxus and Milton cornered him as he escaped. The attack was quick and descisive, and the hairy man was left bleeding on the stones.

By the time anyone came back to him, he was gone. Fresh chucked him unceremoniously into a grave, expecting to never really think about him again.

With Bezro gone, work around the colony returned to normal. At least for a day or so, anyway. Then one fine morning, two of the stranger creatures we have seen wandered into the area. The two toxolopes, like boomalopes but they can be milked for toxins for whatever reason someone would want that. Even cooler, they immediately self-tamed. Hopefully the pen and haygrass field will be large enough for them and the ducks. The weather has also taken a sudden cold turn that many have been complaining about. So Suranna took some initiative to start making jackets for everyone.

That work continued as general improvements were being made around the base. Suranna kept cranking out jackets while Milton focused on cutting stone blocks to improve the flooring in some of the workspaces. One afternoon there was a pretty scary earthquake, and while there were a few cracks in some walls that needed to be patched, we were lucky that no significant damage occured.

Also in accordance with the previous vote, Fresh begins to prepare for her solo researcher adventure. As she packs up, everyone is happy to continue to make progress on various projects. Anthraxus is tell jokes and everyone is having a good time and in good spirits.

Fresh had no encounters on the way to the Dul'fwomursh camp, and her input pretty much instantly solved their problem. This not only yeilded improved relations with that faction, and a notable bump in intellectual skills for Fresh, but also a new tech for us: Wall-mount Heaters and Coolers. These units take more components than regular heaters and coolers, but don't take up floor space or require a vent space for the heat. Looking for even more wins, she stops by the ancient structure we found out about a while back.

The structure proved to be fully abandoned, with lots of useless ancient stuff. While investigating an ancient fuel node, Fresh bumped something resulting in a sizable explosion. This put a timer on how long she had to explore as there was no way she could handle the large fire by herself.

Searching around, she found two old crates with still usable units of Lucerferium. This drug is pretty heavy duty, giving a lot of bonuses, but it will straight up kill you once you are addicted if you ever run out. It is worth a good amount of money to the right trader though, so still worth taking home. Finally, in the very last room, she found a pile of silver, a nice little cash bonus. About this same time back at the base, we intercepted reports of another abandoned genetics research lab.

Fresh is only a few hours from the base as she leaves the burning ruins, but in that span of time, we get a sudden span of events. A solar flare knocks out the power. A bison named Isebelle crashlanded near the base, also auto-taming to us. A psychic drone targetting the men in the group started up. And then Fresh got back. What a day!

The temperature continues to drop, which begins to kill the plants. Depending on how long that lasts this may be a big complication. The overall priority of harvesting is bumped up to harvest what we can before it dies on the vine. In an odd coincidence with IRL Gazette publication Anthraxus and Milton talk about alien conspiracies.

One frosty morning we were warned that a genetic monstrosity was approaching. This turned out to be a single Boomcat. Based on nothing more than the name I assumed that when it was killed, like a boomalope or boomrat, there would be an explosion of fire.

The way it came in, it headed straight towards the animal pen. RK was already there, working on mining out some steel, so he opened fire on the Boomcat. As if they were somehow intentionally trying to commit suicide, literally every single animal in the pen ran down toward the Boomcat except for Isabelle the Bison, who was still recovering from her crash landing earlier. To everyone's surprise when the Boomcat was killed, it did not explode in fire but rather in a massive mess of razor edged shredding hairballs. This did notable damage to the lungs of every animal that had gathered around and destroyed a couple sections of fencing.

Fortunately the hairballs blew away surprisingly quickly, but from somewhere in the mess a mutant Manbear emerged. Fortunately, RK had enough time to treat himself adn start repairs on the fence, so was in a good position to deal with this last surprise monster. Milton took charge of treating the animals, a time consuming and unpleasant task I'm sure.

Before everyone and everything got patched up, we were visited by a small trade caravan from our friends from Eastern Eumonla. Because of the crop freezing our food supplies have started to run low. We traded the Luciferium that Fresh found and the cigarettes we've been sitting on for ever for a couple of meals and some smokeleaf candy that will help bolster morale impacts from the low food. We make have to cull some of our animals to remedy that soon as the wild animals in the area are getting thin as well.

A little bit of time advances. Endmaster has been dedicating some research time to the monolith and achieves another breakthrough. It is revealed that the monolith is a conduit that links this world to the void, a dark reality hidden under every point in spacetime. The void is inhabited by a vast machine intelligence of terrifying complexity that surges with nightmarish, inhuman rage. Its influence creates horrors in our world.

Awakening the monolith will fully open the conduit. With that channel open, Endmaster believes he could reach through the link to permanently close the conduit - or find a way to harness its dark power. We need to encounter three more anomolous entities to awaken the monolith to the next level.

Meanwhile, RK has gone off hunting some of the wildlife we still have in the area. As he wandered, akin to a certain ancient Earth hillbilly, he stumbled across a meteorite that had landed without us noticing. The rock was almost pure gold. We went ahead and marked it for mining once someone has the time.

More time passes. Something I have never seen in the game before happened one evening. Anthraxus talks out loud to absolutely no one, even though Fresh was nearby. I've never seen Rimwold have someone talk to themselves before. In the new storage building, Milton and EndMaster have a much more normal conversation about hostile comedians.

As we come to our next stopping point, work is ongoing to build up a surplus of food again as well as continuing research. We also need more cloth or leather to finish making parkas or jackets for everyone, as we are still a few short. As the sun sets, we get a surprise new creature on the map yet again. These Wastefallos are this planet's answer to classic Fallout Brahmin, or two headed cows. There are a couple of them and they will yield useful meat and leather, so RK begins another hunt.

---

So we have a couple of quests, a ritual and a research question to decide on this time around. Hopefully the next update will not take me 17 days to make myself write up.

Vote One: Dark Research. We are currently research the Electroharvester, which can be attached to a anomalous entity holding platform that will automatically use some of the bioferrite the entity produces to make power for the base. Should we switch this research to the Summon Animals ritual to bring in some more critters to kill and eat?

• Option 1: Leave the focus on the Electroharvester.
• Option 2: Switch the dark research focus to the Summon Animals ritual.

Vote Two: Perform a ritual. We haven't done a ritual in a while. We could try to provoke the void to hopefully get one of the entities we haven't encountered yet. Or we could perform a skip abduction. This will kidnap a "random" person from somewhere on the planet. For the purposes of this scenario, at least this first "victim" will be one of our volunteers from what back at the beginning. Or we can do nothing at this time.

• Option I: Perform a void provocation ritual to summon an anomalous entity.
• Option II: Perform a skip abduction ritual to kidnap a randomly selected Stargirl.
• Option III: Hold off on doing a ritual for now.

Vote Three: Quests This is actually a multiple choice vote. We have three worksites nearby that might be good targets for a raid, as well as that abandoned genetics lab. So if you are voting for doing a raid, please also note which of the sites and in what order you think would be best, beyond the first.

• Option A: Don't go raiding, let these quests expire.
• Option B: Send a party to raid the genetics lab first. (Genetics lab will give genetic related tech, maybe some drugs, but will be guarded by actually very tough genetic abominations. Expires in 8 days.)
• Option C: Send a party to raid the farming camp first. (Has 339 peanuts and is likely guarded by 1-6 members of the independent faction Cagobum. Expires in 2 days.)
• Option D: Send a party to raid the hunting camp first. (Has 62 elephant leather and is likely guarded by 1-6 members of the Red Cliff League, a nudist faction that is currently neutral to us. This will make them hostile and expires in 7 days)
• Option E: Send a party to raid the component mining site first (Has 12 components and maybe more to mine. Likely guarded by 1-6 members of the independent faction but hostile Pact of Scuasne and expires in 8 days)

Vote Three-B: Size of Party Assuming that we are going raiding, how big should the raiding party be?

• Option One: Send everybody
• Option Two: Send everybody with a gun
• Option Three: Send 1-5 people of a mix of guns and melee

These votes will close on Tuesday evening (10/28) around 7pm Eastern.

Because I forgot to post a reminder earlier, I am extending voting until midnight if anyone else wants to jump in.

Oof. Shame on me for reading the thread late.

Would you have voted for the same options as Mystic?

Yeah, I would have voted the same.

Anthraxus talks out loud to absolutely no one

Sounds like what is happening in this thread! Until this response, I suppose.

Vote 1: option 1 - since the colony seems to be running low on food, this seems like a more urgent task
Vote 2: option 2 - find a new Stargirl!
Vote 3: maybe option c since that expires the soonest and food seems to be in short supply, followed by option b (then either of the others if there's time)
Vote 4: option 3 appears the most balanced

Yeah, that isn't weird behavior for IRL Anthraxus. The only time I've seen a pawn in Rimworld do that is when they are suffering an "insane babbling" psychotic break.

Thanks for voting Mystic. Your options will be implemented.

It's scary to have this much say over the fate of the Gazette

This update has a lot of highs and lows, some from the game and some from my own ineptitude. However, the Gazette staff stands and presses on.

As we left off last time, RK is hunting the wasteffalo. He is able to succesfully take down both that beast and it's brother, while TCat dealt with what I think is the last of the corpses of those that fell here while we were all out exploring the first genetics lab.

After the wasteffalos were brought back and butchered, a few meals were made before I realized that the wasteffalos produced toxic meat when butchered. Fortunately only a couple of meals were made with that before I noticed, and it is still useful to make kibble for the animals with. Given that the cold has keep our haygrass from growing, several of the animals will be quite happy for it.

Before too much progress can be made on that, however, we get notice of being raided by yttikin assholes from the Byttden faction. They approach from two vectors, north and south.

As the southern group (squad 2) decided to hold much closer to the base than the northern group, all the gun-holders headed down that way to deal with them. Endmaster got added in late to be a melee threat, so he was trailing behind the group.

The southern squad was easy enough to deal with, and none of our folks even got so much as a scratch from it. Both raiders were gunned down, and Endmaster showed up in time to put the killing blow on each of them, while the gunners headed back north to deal with the northern squad that is a little better armed.

The original plan was to wait from the raiders to try to come across the river, but because of the layout of the mountains, one of the raiders wandered way to west. The other proved to be armed with a musket. This rifle was much slower than any of our guns, but had nearly three times the range. Because of this, they camped outside of our range and just started taking pot shots.

As we forded the river to get in range and Milton actived his combat command skill, the raider got off a lucky shot and managed to blow the heart out of Fresh's chest! She collapsed, instantly dead, as the rest of the group charged forward. The fire fight was intense for a few moments, but the other raiders were killed without any other major damage.

The victory was tainted with Fresh's death, and caused some reassessment of how we need to approach things. Since we have lost someone, we need to get started on the process to replace them. Thus, while Mr. Nobody buries Fresh, most of the rest of the group gathers to perform the skip abduction ritual.

It was surprising how long the ritual took and this is where I messed up. I wasn't paying close enough attention and by the time the ritual concluded, the peanut farm work site had disappeared. This invalidates Mystic's initial selection for what raid we should do. Sorry Mystic, but we will stick with your second option and work towards investigating the abandoned genetics lab.

The ritual takes a fair amount of time, during which Mr. Nobody even wanders over and joins the ritual from afar. Finally, with a brilliant flash of light the randomly selected StarGirl appeared. She is not follower of the Cystian path yet, and the dark ritual will leave her in a coma for the next four days.

Since the farm option is gone, we have a couple of days to prepare before heading to the lab. StarGirl is put one of the bedrooms that is now designated a prison and conversion room, although we can't really do anything with her other than treat her wounds until she comes out of her coma. We will have to send the caravan to the lab well before then, however.

Suranna and Anthraxus focus on making some kibble and feeding the animals, while everyone else returns to their normal duties. Endmaster is focused on making simple meals, and RK continues to serve as our primary hunter. TCat is focused on working on the flooring in the warehouse, while Mr. Nobody is working on cutting down trees and tending to the few plants that are still growing, however slowly. But everyone still takes time to eat and read together.

As everyone is doing their thing, jumping from task to task, Milton settles down at the tailor bench to work on finishing some backpacks as we don't have enough hide or cloth to finish the parkas we need to get everyone properly dressed for the freezine summer we are currently working through. Milton surprisingly makes a pass a Suranna that is not only not responded to, but she immediately starting talking about jock straps with him. Maybe he should take it as a warning.

Early the next morning we got a request for aid I've never seen before. A city was under siege and requesting help. The offered bounty was unbelievable in value, but not only are we not really equipped to defend a city but it is also nearly nine days away by foot. We would have to leave immediately to have even a chance of getting there in time, and we only have a couple days of food stored up anyway.

Progress was being made on building up supplies for the caravan. The lab is about three and half days away, so we will want to have plenty of food on hand. Since everyone kind of works by their own schedule, RK found time to hang out and relax while everyone was working. We have about a half dozen smokeleaf joints saved up, and RK helped himself to one while chatting with Suranna. As the afternoon wears on everyone (except the unconscious StarGirl) was startled by inhuman shrieks that echoed off the mountains. Something strange and terrible is coming.

Lacking any way to meaningfully prepare, everyone continues on with their tasks. Everyone is chatting and just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Finally, appearing literally out of thin air, a horrific entity reveals itself to Milton. Fortunately several folks were close by to run to his aid.

The fight was vicious, yet the Sightstealer could not withstand the barrage of attacks focused on it. By the time it was incapacitated and hauled off to containment, Milton had gotten clawed up pretty severely.

RK secured this strange entity capable of invisibility in containment and took extra care treating it's wounds. This will not only be a good contributor of bioferrite via the extractor, but it will also provide more Dark Research capabilities. Although thanks to RK and Endmaster's efforts, our food supplies are only increasing, we were pleasantly surprised when a couple hundred units of raw beef dropped to the west of the base.

Finally the time has come to pack up the caravan. Everyone but Milton and Suranna is going to go, including the anacondas and Isabell the bison. The bison will increase our carrying capacity by 84kg, and the anacondas will help with any wild animals that get in the way, maybe even with some of the genetic monstrosities. It is really unfortunate that they are untrainable. At the same time they were packing up, we got word of a trade caravan from Eastern Eumonla arriving. Milton will handle the negotiations with them.

It was interesting to catch the group just as they were leaving the map. We got a fun example of the kind of traveling conversation the group tends to have. Meanwhile, Milton worked out a good trade for some packaged survival meals, medicine, and a LMG in exchange for the Luciferium, Ambrosia and a handcannon.

While the caravan travels towards the lab, and Milton and our friends from Eastern Eumonla share a meal. Rina, our trusty dog, has finally been trained to help haul stuff and is now helping to put away our trade goods.

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We don't really have anything to vote on this update.

We have StarGirl in now. Was anyone else wanting to offer themselves up for inclusion in the Rimworld Gazette Colony?

Sorry, what's that? I was telling a story over here? Oh yeah, so I was. Well. I guess let's get back to that. Perhaps some of the new folks on the site will find it interesting.

Shortly after the caravan headed out for the research post, with only two people left in camp things slowed down pretty drastically. Fortunately we had a mysterious 'dark scholar' that contacted us and asked to join.

Crosswell is a Yttakin with both a death refusal ability that allows her to ignore being killed four times. She also has a beast call skill. Unfortunately she has some weird ideology, but at least it doesn't have any problematic principles. Even better she is excellent with animals and research. While the caravan is still out there, we don't have anyone in the base that has a good animals skill, so this is pretty fortunate. Since she "won't take no for an answer" anyway, we might as well make use of her.

Very shortly after Crosswell joined the Forum, Stargirl finally awoken from her psychic ritual abduction. Suranna immediately goes to work on converting her to Cystianity. Her starting certainty in her ideoligion is moderately high, so this will probably take a bit.

Meanwhile, the toxic wastepacks that we took way back in update 5 (almost 3/4 of a year ago in game time) have finally decomposed. Looking at the amount of pollution they left behind, it was definitely the right call to move them as far away from the base as possible. Speaking of cleaning up waste, one of the first things Crosswell undertakes is to haul the various corpses still scattered around over to the harbinger tree to be eaten.

Elsewhere, the caravan has finally reached the outpost. This one is very large, with a complex multiple building layout. Fortunately there is a convenient hole in the outer wall to go through. As they approach, a truly horrific Thrumbolizard ambushed the group as they stepped through the wall. This huge genetic monstrosity is very powerful and dangerous. Because of the ambush, it popped up practically on top of us. I was expected a ferocious melee fight, and totally called that one.

The Thrumbolizard was a whirl of horn, claw and fang. Almost instantly TCat and Endmaster were bleeding and within only a few seconds the Thrumbolizard catches TCat first with a horn and then a bite that tears out her throat. Endmaster was knocked down with a sweeping tail attack.

Suddenly, the Thrumbolizard reveals an unexpected ability. It engulfs RK in a flaming breath. Panicing from the fire RK runs and tries to put himself out, while Mr. Nobody and Anthraxus continue the increasingly desperate fight. Finally Mr. Nobody got off a lucky shot that blew the Thrubmolizard's brain out.

Coincidentally, back at the main base, just as we killed this weird Thrumbolizard, a pair of wild Thrumbos wandered onto the map. At the lab, to avoid the moral impact of viewing a corpse, Anthraxus quickly dug a few graves and buried TCat.

Needing some shelter, we risk checking a copule of the closest buildings. Fortunately they are both empty of threats. We quickly designated some sleeping area to give the wounded a place to heal up. For some reason I could not force anyone to unload the bedrolls we brought along no matter what I tried. Nevertheless we press on. Just past these first couple of buildings, a feline paragon charged at us. Everyone who was conscious ganged up on it and killed it pretty quick, although it got a couple good swipes in on Anthraxus.

Apparently the caravan ate most of the prepared meals on the way here and had been feeding off of berries and raw meat. With the chaos of the fight and attempted recovery, we haven't had a chance to even build a fire yet. Because of this Anthraxus collapses from food poisoning, while Endmaster and Mr. Nobody learned no lessons and ate more raw meat from Iselle's packs, gaining food poisoning.

On top of that, the caravan's arrival was noticed by a Mechhive, giving us a little less that three days to finish searching the base, deal with any more critters, recover from those fights, and then hopefully gather up all the stuff and head home. Because of this, while Anthraxus was recuperating from the food poisoning. everyone else pressed on, exploring several rooms but not finding much useful.

They continued into the largest building in the complex. In a large room with a couple of salvageable electrowombs, valuable genetic development tools, they were suddenly ambushed by an Ursine Paragon and a really bizzare creature called a Manalope, basically just a giant hand with a natural chemfuel filled sack on the wrist.

The fight was vicious and bloody. This was the first time that EndMaster had found himself in a fight with a creature he could actually target with his "psychic slaughter" ability, as everything else has been too big. It wounded the Manalope pretty heavily, but not enough to actually take it out of the fight. In the next blink, the paragon bear was on top of him.

In the middle of this fight, back at the base, Milton, Suranna, and Crosswell looked skyward as a tremendous boom thundered across the sky. A shuttle was crashing!

They spread out, and we were lucky that it only wiped out half of our peanut crop. Just a little bit further north and it would have taken out either one or both of our windmills. There was hope that we might find a survivor or two inside, but unfortunately the three crewmembers died in the crash. At least we will get some steel and components out of the wreckage, and the harbinger tree will get some more food.

Back at the lab, the battle was going poorly. First EndMaster and then Mr. Nobody were struck down by the beasts. RK tried to pull back and Anthraxus was able to recover enough to try to come help. RK managed to squeeze off the final shot that killed the Ursine paragon, while Anthraxus was just barely able to beat the Manalope to death with his gun. Everyone was critically wounded. It was a miracle that the the Manalope did not explode when it died, as Boomalopes usually do. EndMaster and Mr. Nobody were able to almost drag themselves out of the room by the time Anthraxus collected them and RK and returned everyone to the sleeping areas in the safe room.

Anthraxus treated everyone's wounds and focused on getting a fire going and cooking some food to help mitigate everyone's food poisoning. Unfortunately, because it was required to keep a close eye on what Anthraxus was doing, as well as Mr. Nobody as he was the next person to recover enough to be able to walk around, the building infection in one of RK's wounds was overlooked.

Over the next day, while Anthraxus and Mr. Nobody tried to keep everyone fed and not dead, the infection built and spread. The lack of any real medication beyond a couple wild healroots that were nearby allowed the infection to build quicker that any available treatment could catch it. I was shocked when there was a notification that RK had died!

Not only is this saddening to myself on a meta level, it also hits everyone with a mood debuff for losing a friend and colonist. This is too much for Mr. Nobody, who succumbs to insane ramblings. This is risky as there are still a couple of unexplored places in the complex that might hold dangers. Fortunately most of the expected riches of the place have been gathered.

Anthraxus focused on exploring the rest of the place, and was moving quick enough that he was in a completely different building when an ambushing Cathorse revealed itself in the prior building he had looked in.

This bizarre creature, really more of a horse-sized cat than a cat-sized horse, charged out into the courtyard, but Anthraxus was able to cripple it pretty heavily by the time it closed, and was able to kill it with only a couple significant wounds. The choice to not setup storage in the freezer proves costly as some of the genome material we have collected rotted away in storage. We were able to salvage the ones from the first lab so this probably isn't too impactful, although it is costly in consideration of possible trading materials.

While the wounds were not enough to incapacitate or even seriously impede him, the pain fo the wounds were enough to cause dark shadows to drift over Anthraxus's mind and he joins Mr. Nobody in insane rambling madness. A caravan cannot be reformed while members of it are suffering a mental break and we have less than a day to recover from the breaks and vacate the area before the mechs show up. There is no chance to survival if that happens and all of this will be for nothing.

My apologies, dear reader, but because of the ever-shrinking timetable I was focused on trying to have EndMaster get as much together as possible to haul back as soon as Anthraxus and Mr. Nobody finished their rambling and mutterings I forgot to take screenshots, although I promise you didn't miss anything really significant. Both of them stopped rambling with six hours left, and everything got packed upand cleared out with just under two hours left on the clock. The march back to base takes three uneventful, hungry days, as they had to fully rely on foraging food for the last day and half of the trip.

Meanwhile, back at base, we may not have had any survivors from the shuttle crash, but a woman crashlands in a pod south of the base. She is an independent space refugee named Macy, but pretty much as soon she recovers from her minor injuries, she chose to leave, even before the caravan returned.

Almost as soon as she left the map, the caravan came in. All of them were starving, having been completely without food for at least a day, but that was quickly remedied. Now, I would have sworn I made sure to include RK's body in what we brought back, but looking in the stuff that Iselle is carrying its not there. This is unfortunate as there are means to bring people back from the dead, but only if you have the body. RK's death is also difficult on the whole group as he was a Mod, and Cystian's love their Mods. This means that we need to designate a new Mod. We also can do another skip abduction if there is anyone out there that wants to join the colony. Or perhaps we could get RK in a new skin?

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Surprisingly we have not gotten any quests recently, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. We do have a few decisions to make:

Vote One: Who should be the new mod? Probably know who will be the winner here, but if for not other reason than interaction, please vote your opinion. Milton isn't an option because he already has a role.

• Option 1: EndMaster, although he is tied with Anthraxus for worst social skill level.
• Option 2: Anthraxus, also has a bad skill level for the role.
• Option 3: Crosswell, barely better than EndMaster or Anthraxus and she might leave at anytime.
• Option 4: Suranna, with a social skill of 5 is the second highest in the group.
• Option 5: Mr. Nobody, has the highest social skill of the group.

Vote Two:Should be abduct someone else? Stargirl is almost converted.

• Option A: Yes, kidnap a new version of RK.
• Option B: Yes, kidnap a new person. {Feel free to suggest a name}
• Option C: No, we have enough people for now.

Vote Three:Perform a void provocation ritual. We still need to encounter two more entites to advance the monolith again.

• Option I: Yes, see what comes.
• Option II: No, let's get better equipped first.

Because it has been so long since the last update, and we have Christmas coming up, we'll let the votes run until 12/27.

Oh , this isn't dead.

Endmaster obviously.

The new RK is an edgy and cynical Pakistani man named KR. He hates everything he reads.

I don't really remember how these rituals work, but most dangerous option that could kill the most people obviously.