THE ARTIFACT

Log 19, Forotidae. My group and I made it to the edge of the mountain, unfortunately we cannot scale it. The cliff face is too steep and clearly provides no signs of life present on it. So instead, I’ve opted to go around the mountain. By following the edge of the mountain we’ll end up at the coast of one of the oceans, this should give us a path to follow up. As my group was making its way around the mountain the bot found, and tried to kill, a newly discovered species. These creatures are about 15ft long and live in open valleys with their herd. They are surprisingly docile and were very quick to accept me and my group. Despite these creatures being gentle giants, they do pose a defense mechanism. An evolved exhaust port on the forehead allows these creatures to ignite the methane clumps in the air and shoot a vibrant flame. This is used to scare off predators and impress mates. The way this biological flamethrower works is via a special organ. Methane is siphoned from the back, stored in a compressive organ, and squeezed out of a petal like tube coated in an ignition saliva. I think Forotidae is a fitting name for these creatures because of that. The walk to the ocean isn’t too long but won’t show anything new, in the meantime I might make an evolutionary chart of this planet. I can already tell that these creatures are related to the Thorsum, just gotta figure out who came first.