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From:	Samual Basl <basl@*******.NET>
Subject:	Re: Underwater Stuff
Date:	Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:07:19 -0500

Message no. 1 Just a scary thought from a too quiet wierdo, but how about an
awakened and marginally magicaly active version of this eurasian water
milfoil. Kinda like a sub-aquatic version of that microorganism that i can't
remember the name of and am too lazy to try and look up. Dunno exactly what
it could do, besides cloud up astral space. Maybe ya could make it
carnivorous, and if yer real nasty make it next to impossible to tell the
awakened stuff from the normal, without someone who can look into astral space.
+----------------------------------------+----------------------------------
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|Episkopos Maha'sam'atman, the Bent, |"Balls Said The Queen
|
|POEE Chaplin for the Legion of Dynamic | If I Had Two I'd Be King
|
|Discord, Dink Winkleman Cabal, Daemon | And The King Laughed
|
|Imperator of Mars, and Commander in | Not Because He Had
Two |
|Chief of the Venusian Armed Forces, KSC | But Because He
Had To"|
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| ***BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK***
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|G! d--(x) s:- a18>? C++ !U L E? W N o? K? w+() !O>+ M-- V? PS+++ PE Y+ PGP-
t+ 5++ | |X+ R++(+) tv+ b+++ DI G e- h! r* y--(**)
|
| ***END GEEK CODE BLOCK***
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(Known among the Boring as Sam Basl)

From:	"K. Sundqvist" <kylesun@*.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Underwater Stuff
Date:	Mon, 20 Jan 1997 21:03:19 -0800

Message no. 2 Hmmm. An awakened milfoil species. The stalks of the stuff grow
quite long. I remember being told when I was little that other little
kids have been known to drown because of the stuff. When milfoil sways
back and forth in the current, I guess it could bring to mind those sea
enemities (enenimies?, aenenimties?... I could never say that word). If
you had a carnivorous species, I take it that it would capture its prey in
a simular manner--immitating a normal plant until the prey touches it and
then the strands would act aggressively like tentacles, bringing in the
subject. Maybe it would utilize some sort of nerve toxin, such as those
enemmeienjjdzkljfietes do.
I feel that an awakened form of the plant would have to be a
rareity, because if it were plentiful and reproduced like normal milfoil,
the stuff would be an all-too-common hazzard, and it would have shown up
in some sort of Shadowrun literature by now.
I like the idea of the species' use of mingling with mundane
milfoil as disguise. This keeps with the idea that it is sparse and not
something you run into all the time.
At the very least, moving about in all forms of milfoil at least
deserve extreme speed and vision modifiers.

From:	Michael Auerswald <tiamat@*********.DE>
Subject:	Re: Underwater Stuff
Date:	Tue, 21 Jan 1997 20:01:47 +0100

Message no. 3 Some more words on the milfoil. Who sais it is nescessary to invent some magically active
milfoil type? Well, ever looked at todays water? And have you seen the ground then? Nope.
Even
todays water is quite polluted, imagine it surrounded by megacons... The milfoil would
either
die or adjust to the pollution. There we have our milfoil, a mutated version of the normal
one. This version might absorb certain types of poisons or may even filter it out of the
water. This poison the plant will use against.....well, guess who, the players :)
Also, what about evolution plus mutation? What about a milfoil that starts to develop (of
course limited) intelligence? And with this becomes carnivorous?
--
---------------------------| That is not dead
Tiamat | which can eternal lie,
tiamat@*********.de | And with strange eons
---------------------------| even death may die.

http://www.compronet.de/~tiamat/index.html

From:	Jon Camfield <griffjon@****.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Underwater Stuff
Date:	Tue, 21 Jan 1997 16:24:05 -0700

Message no. 4 >Also, what about evolution plus mutation? What about a milfoil that starts
to develop (of
>course limited) intelligence? And with this becomes carnivorous?
>--
> Tiamat

Hate to be biological, but mutation (the kind that doesn't die
quickly) is one of the few processes of evolution, so you're being sorta
repetitive. It won't survive unless the mutated version is more
competitive. Then, as long as the new type and the old type remain using
the same mutrients, etc, the more competitive version will completely take
over. In this scenario, the milfoil pop would be decimated by the increased
polution levels, but a few would develop certain resistance to it, and the
most competitive of these would repopulate like crazy into the recently
cleared niche, probably leading to variation w/i the species (slight
speciation, some sub-species).
Even more fun: say this adaptation takes place at a mana spike--
I've always wondered at what happens when evolution meets magic. (or vice
versa). Magically active species are tremendously competitive in the
presence of other normal critters (read: critters don't cyber-aug
themselves). (when's the last time you saw a phys-ad get beat up by a
6-essence street punk?).
So you end up with either a magically active milfoil (possibly
hidden w/i mundane plants if it evolves in the presence of a predator that
favors the magic taste?), or a lot of 'em that've adapted to pollution.
Again, in the evidence of a predator, maybe they've developed some nasty
defenses.
Makes me wonder about the predator...

sorry to be long winded.

________________________________________________________________________
Jon Camfield | I thought it was alive
GriffJon the Sinistral Minstrel | Thought I could empathize
vis_jmc@****.shsu.edu | With its downward flight, but
GriffJon@****.utexas.edu | It was only a leaf
http://www.shsu.edu/~vis_jmc | Falling in late summer.
________________________________________________________________________
The question "What?" must be answered before "Why?" may be addressed.

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