Editing Magical Realm Cyoa/Sauros

[[File:No-Scale and Cain.jpg]]

Sauros - a land of near-unending tropics and a variety of natural wonders. This realm's Wizard, known as No-Scale the Runner, can be found wandering the lands with his familiar, Cain. One might come upon them exploring a cave, healing the wounded, or perhaps even visiting another realm they find appealing. Every so often, No-Scale appears on Earth, mostly to visit his old human friends, meet with other Realm Wizards, or perhaps simply to remind himself of what makes him human.


== Build ==

The Original Build
--------------------
Area Increase 3 [5] - 95 left
Gateways 1 [1] - 94 left
Protection 1 [3] - 91 left
Assimilation [3] - 88 left (No mental assimilation, but you'll get used to the heat quickly and probably gain a sweet tan. Also, white hair on youngin's for some reason, but the hair will otherwise remain young.)
Population Increase 3 [6] - 82 left
Attitude Adjustment [1] - 81 left (Restless, given to wandering, but not very ambitious. They mostly just have wanderlust.)
Extrahuman Population [4] - 77 left (Various breeds of reptile-people live here, mostly based on ornithopod dinosaurs.)
Metahuman Population [5] - 72 left (They can emit a damaging sonic attack if need be, whether it be a screech or a bellow.)
Aesthetics [2] - 70 left (Their moving camps are something to see.)
Sanitation [1] - 69 left (Surprisingly clean camps, even!)
Mercantile [2] - 67 left (They'll trade their wares wherever they go.)
Music Affinity [1] - 66 left (A nomadic life is always better with pan pipes, songs, and drums!)
Festival Affinity [1] - 65 left (Festivals are fun.)
Food Affinity [1] - 64 left (No meat, but you should see what they can do with berries, peppers, the occasional eggs, and so on.)
Landscape Adjustment [3] - 61 left (Tropical grassland, conifers, inland seas, and cycad forests everywhere.)
Fauna and Flora 3 [5] - 56 left (Trees that grow multiple types of fruits and vegetables on their branches and are borne by great tortoises on which the tribes move. These tortoises are also host to many smaller beasts, some of which are rather similar to dicynodonts and lay delicious eggs. Then there's the tiny flying snakes, the pinecones full of water, the list goes on.)
Spirits [2] - 54 left (Their ancestor spirits have a habit of travelling with them until such time as they're ready to pass on. They also occasionally help out with some good luck.)
Immortality [2] - 52 left
Tongues [1] - 51 left
Peak Condition [2] - 49 left
The Journey [4] - 45 left
Healing [2] - 43 left
Enchanting [2] - 41 left
Friendship 2 [3] - 38 left
Familiar [3] - 35 left
Guidance 2 [10] - 25 left

Sauros Redraft (Made w/the interactive document)
---------------------------------------
Demiplane: Area Increase 4
Planar Features: Protection 1, Assimilation, Gateways 2
Population: Population Increase 1
Inhabitants: Attitude Adjustment , Extrahuman Population, Metahuman Population
Society: Aesthetics, Mercantile, Sanitation
Cultural Affinities: Music Affinity, Art Affinity,Nature Affinity, Food Affinity, Festival Affinity
Environment: Cosmic Adjustment, Landscape Adjustment, Exceptional Materials, Fertile, Fauna & Flora 3, Magical Phenomena
Adventure: Spirits
Capital: Influence 1
Personal: Immortality, Tongues, Peak Condition, The Journey, Memory, Awareness
Powers: Healing, Enchanting, Inspiration, Spirit Walk
Companionship: Friendship 2, Familiar
Ascension: Guidance 2
--------------------------------------------
Final Build

[93] Area Increase 4
[90] Gateways 2
[87] Assimilation
[84] Protection 1
[83] Attitude Adjustment
[79] Extrahuman Population
[75] Metahuman Population
[73] Aesthetics
[71] Mercantile
[70] Sanitation
[68] Diplomatic
[67] Music Affinity
[66] Art Affinity
[65] Nature Affinity
[64] Food Affinity
[63] Festival Affinity
[61] Cosmic Adjustment
[58] Landscape Adjustment
[55] Exceptional Materials
[50] Fauna & Flora 3
[47] Magical Phenomena
[45] Spirits
[43] Immortality
[40] Spirit Walk
[39] Tongues
[37] Memory
[35] Awareness
[33] Inspiration
[31] Peak Condition
[29] Blessing
[27] Healing
[25] Enchanting
[22] Friendship 2
[19] Familiar
[9] Guidance 2
[1] Population Increase 4
[0] Occult Affinity



== The Land ==

Sauros... a land of natural wonders. Cavern systems full of strange formations, islands where geyser-like sprays of water surge up almost constantly, forests of cycads that freeze over for six months, and forests so thick with green few things can see through them, never mind moving through them. The fauna is diverse, though mostly reptilian in nature, and the sounds are a testament to the abundance of life. Inland seas and great expanses of tropics and grasslands provide a mix of the old and the only-slightly-newer that serves the inhabitants well. Migrants who decide to stay will find their bodies adapting to the climate and atmosphere, and their wills bolstered to meet the challenges of this wild land. Survival, and even thriving, will come more easily to them as time passes, and some skills will almost simply appear.


== The People ==

The Saurosians are a peculiar people. Resembling ornithopod dinosaurs for the most part, they make their living in huts on the back of gigantic tortoise-like creatures. They are given to wandering, and their curiosity knows only one boundary - the skittishness of a prey animal. Their ability to amplify their voices to damaging levels when threatened provides them with some defense from predation, but it is the Hutshells they live on the backs of and the Roottusks they herd that protect them most fiercely. They are primitive, but intelligent, and somewhat quick to learn, and their wanderlust is likely to take them through the world's numerous Gateways towards contact with other peoples. Overall, their lack of technology and applied magic leaves them with little in the way of war-readiness, but war is not what No-Scale intended for his realm. When not cowering before the great predators of the realm or working to survive, Saurosians can often be found discssing the latest mystical phenomena, making a number of delicious meals, exploring, trading their wares in other realms, or even just carving wood or bone figures and singing the songs of their people.


== The Realm Wizard ==
No-Scale and his familiar Cain are often involved in the exploration and mapping of Sauros. While he does have a study located somewhere in the Realm, he does not spend much time there. When he does, it is often to add his latest findings to a map of Sauros, make contact with old friends from Earth (and old saurian friends from Earth's fiction), or simply enjoy sleep inside a shelter. It's one of those things.

== Relations With Other Realms ==

Sauros, having no unified authority, has no formal relations with other realms. Individual Saurosian villages, however, may have ties to a number of different Realms, usually those that they have visited before.


== Bestiary ==

Sauros is home to many creatures, and a few of them are outlined below.

HUTSHELLS
 
Of all the beasts of Sauros, this, perhaps, is the most important. At first glance, it just looks like a giant tortoise of some sort, but when you see the 120-foot tall trees growing on just a small patch of its shell, which is home to an entire ecosystem (and, likely, a Saurosian village), only then do you realize just how important these animals are. They are both the stable living space and primary means of locomotion for the Saurosians, and support a number of other organisms endemic to these living, mobile islands. For a creature of such size and bulk, however, they also move surprisingly quickly - at about a human's walking pace. It is not yet known just how these creatures sustain themselves or reproduce. However, as evidenced by a sighting of a Saurosian tribe that entered another Realm on foot and in a state of desperation, it appears that the Hutshells are, in fact, capable of dying. Such an event would no doubt be devastating to the creatures that rely upon it.
 
SAUROSIANS
 
The Saurosians themselves are the most intelligent inhabitants of Sauros, save perhaps for the somewhat elusive (or perhaps cowardly?) being known to them as No-Scale (inquiry as to whether it introduced itself as such to them or they named it such currently underway). They, notably, tend to resemble Earth's extinct ornithopod dinosaurs, though at least three tribes have been noted to resemble small, bipedal stegosauroids and one has been noted as having more similarities to prosauropods. Their level of technology is low, understandably so, for such a world, but they are almost shockingly quick to learn for such a people - their curiosity occasionally gets them into some trouble, but the speed at which they take to new trades is somewhat alarming. However, it is also rather easy to scare them - simply appearing unexpectedly will do, as this is the usual tactic of the predators they seek shelter from on the Hutshells. When startled and unable to flee, they are capable of becoming very... loud. The sonic pulse they can emit is, in fact, capable of knocking its target unconcious. It is noted, however, that they seem entirely unwilling to weaponize this ability, regarding it, instead, as a means of escape from danger.
 
ROOTTUSKS
 
These pig-sized creatures, notably domesticated by the Saurosians, have a curious dicynodont look to them. What is more, while they reproduce in a mammalian manner and bear live young, they still lay edible constructs similar to eggs. The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that these "eggs" are used to deter predators from consuming their actual young by giving them a stationary, unliving, and notably, rather spicy target. The levels of capsaicin in the "eggs" are known to be lethal to a number of wild predators, and are potentially lethal to humans in their base state. However, these "eggs" feature heavily in Sauroisan culinary culture, and are said to make excellent rejuvenating drinks as well as good bases for a sort of soup that also features several vegetables. Roottusks are, beyond this, notoriously opportunistic eaters - don't leave ANYTHING edible unattended near them.
 
RENDCLAWS
 
The common rendclaw of Sauros is a cassowary-sized predator of dromaeosaurid appearance and demeanor. Other breeds, such as the chicken-sized Miniature Rendclaw, the turkey-sized Dwarf Rendclaw, and the moa-sized Giant Rendclaw, are known to exist, and one breed is even known as the Fireclaw, due to its seeming ability to breathe fire (though this is likely a primitive local attempt at communicating the biological weaponry of a creature that would very much like to have them for dinner). While not sapient, the various breeds of rendclaw are cunning, vicious, and swift. Their dexterity, combined with the namesake claws on their hindlimbs and their propensity towards hunting in packs, makes them almost unrealistically difficult to defend against. Saurosian villages are protected by the sheer size of the hutshells, but any who fall to the ground and do not react in time are made short work of - if the fall didn't already kill them, that is. It is known that the most common breeds of rendclaw - the Common, Dwarf, and Miniature - have a particular distaste for overly bright lights - sunlight or fire, they can handle, but most artificial lights leave them disoriented and helpless. A camera flash could leave them unable to pursue for two minutes. The reason for this unclear - it is entirely possible that this Realm's Wizard simply decided to give the creatures an exploitable weakness so as to prevent travellers from suffering ill-timed deaths.
 
TREENECKS
 
The Common Treeneck, being something close to 80 feet long and half as high, is the largest "mundane" creature in the Saurosian ecosystem. An herbivore, it spends its days travelling in small herds and peacefully eating leaves. In appearance, it is most similar to the Amaragasaurus, though it also boasts some titanosaurid traits - notably, the scutes on its back resemble those of a Saltasaurus. Beyond this, there is little to say - the creatures are docile and decidedly not too bright.
 
CRUSHJAWS
 
The Crushjaw is the most fearsome beast of the Realm. Its appearance is the unholy amalgamation of a tyrannosaurid, a spinosaurid, and an allosaurid, and its strength, ferocity, bite force, and appetite exceed all three combined. The one saving grace one might be granted when near these bus-length, 4-meter tall beasts is that only the most desperate of them prey on anything smaller than the treeneck. Little is known of the animal's mating habits or social structure, given that those who go to examine it have a tendency not to come back.
 
WHIRLJUMPS
 
While snakelike in appearance, these small creatures have a strange means of gliding - the membranes to the sides of their bodies are used to catch the wind, and these placid creatures then coil into a sort of "air screw" so as to glide further. This technique is used to catch flying insects, and it is known that these reptiles can coil tighter, then loosen slightly to launch themselves in a springlike manner from tree branches, roofs , or open hands. The Saurosian tribes seem to like keeping them as pets, as they consume a number of known pests and are non-venomous. Some who have encountered them say that the little creatures are "strangely adorable."
 
SKYLEAPS
 
The skyleaps of Sauros are curious creatures, with some varieties given to migrating long distances over land and water to mate, loud vocal displays to assert dominance, desire to mate, or even simple concepts such as hunger, and/or a habit of stealing shiny things. Furthermore, these pterosaur-like animals are notably diverse in their diets - some consume only fish and shellfish (these varieties are notably common in the Geyser Isles), while others feast on fruit and vegetables. Others still are hunters, and some operate as vulture-like scavengers. There is even supposedly a large, swift variety that hunts rendclaws, though it is difficult to say. What is not difficult to say is that a number of these creatures appear fit for domestication, but simply do not possess the benefit required for the locals to engage in such a process. It is rumored, however, that the largest of the herbivorous varieties may be mountable by smaller creatures, if tamed successfully, and they have proven to be able to carry, at most, about five times their weight while flying without discomfort. How such a creature could do so remains to be discovered, but these Whooping Skyleaps, named for the sound they make, show promise. Perhaps, with time, the locals might learn their use - it is certainly an interesting thought.