Quote: Woodland

This page contains the narrations of black ant missions.

## **New Home**

**Mission begins**:

* This *Formica fusca* queen has set up home beneath a rotting log. She is fat, and vulnerable. Her first brood will need to move quickly if the colony is to survive. Their priority now is to find food, and there is plenty around. But there are other hungry creatures down there. The workers will need to be vigilant.

**You dig out a woodworm for the first time**:

* The ants have encountered a pocket of woodworms. These defenseless weevil larvae will make an excellent meal for the colony. They will be butchered, and carried off for processing.

**You dig out a larval devil's coach horse beetle for the first time**:

* The workers have uncovered carnivorous larvae of *Ocypus olens*, the devil’s coach horse beetle. They are born ready for combat, with powerful slicing mandibles for chopping up their prey. They are still small however, and must undergo a final pupation before their armor is fully developed. If the ants have disturbed the adult of these larvae, the outcome for the colony may not have been so fortunate.

**You dig out a woodlouse for the first time**:

* These woodlice would make a significant addition to the colony’s larder, but they are clinging tightly to the ground. It’s going to take some effort to dislodge them.

**You dig out an adult devil's coach horse beetle for the first time**:

* The ants have stumbled into the path of a fully developed devil’s coach horse beetle, and it’s hungry for breakfast. The beetle is almost four times the size of a black ant and protected by thick plates of external armor. Whilst it bites at the tiny defenders, it sprays foul smelling secretion from the end of its raised abdomen, disorientating the ants.

**You kill an adult devil's coach horse beetle for the first time**:

* The devil’s coach horse is dead. It corpse will provide food to support dozens of new brood.

**You win**:

* This *Formica fusca* colony has now established itself as a rising power in the undergrowth. Soon their territory will need to expand above ground, where new challenges await. For the time being, however, the queen is safe.

**You lose**:

* The queen has fallen. Her body will be dissected and her untended broods perish. Most young ant colonies will end this way, just another meal for creatures of the undergrowth.

## **Subjugation**

**Mission begins** :

* This *Formica fusca* black ant queen has given birth to her first brood. While the workers establish their new territory in the earth, above ground a nearby colony of *Formica sanguinea* slave-maker ants are on the lookout for would be victims. These ants specialize in stealing larvae from neighbouring nests and raising them as their own. If the black ant colony isn’t prepared for the inevitable incursion, they may be wiped out entirely. *Formica sanguinea* are not the only danger for the fledgling colony. There is something even more sinister nearby, lurking in the darkness.

**You dig out a funnel-web spider for the first time**:

* *Segestria florentina*, a funnel-web spider. She is large, fast, and equipped with a deep, powerful bite. Her lair is carpeted by sheets of silk woven between trip wires that radiate out from the entrance. She can detect even the slightest vibrations with her sensitive legs. Any ants that stray too close will be snapped away in the blink of an eye.

**You kill a funnel-web spider for the first time**:

* By working together, the ants have overwhelmed one of the funnel-web spiders. She won’t be causing ant more trouble for the colony… Her sisters, however, still present a problem.

**You encounter a slave-maker ant stealer for the first time**:

* A *sanguinea* scout has sensed the presence of the black ants. A raid on the colony is now inevitable. The question remains as to whether they will merely pillage a generation of young, or wipe out the colony entirely. In the end it will come down to the tenacity of the defending ants.

**Slave-maker ants invade your nest for the first time**:

* The raiding party has arrived. The slave-makers will head straight for the brood chambers. They must be stopped.

**Slave-maker ants invade your nest** *(randomized)*:

* The *sanguinea* colony seeks once again to bolster its number. A battalion of slave-makers charge into the nest!

* The slave-makers are back, they can sense larvae and they want their share.

* There is no respite from the culling, the *sanguinea* will subjugate, or exterminate.

**You lose [x] percent of your larvae after a raid** *(randomized)*:

* The raiding party has left, and with them they have taken [x] percent of the black ant brood. The *fusca* colony must replenish quickly if they are to survive the next assault.

* The raiding party has left, and with them they have taken [x] percent of the black ant brood. The queen must lay quickly to return the colony to its former strength.

* The raiding party has left, and with them they have taken [x] percent of the black ant brood. The danger may be gone for now, but this truce is merely a formality. The *sanguinea* are already planning their next onslaught.

**You lose no larva after a raid**:

* The raiding party was no match for the valiant defenders. The brood remains safe, for now.

**You win**:

* Once again, the slave-makers return to their nest with new black ant larvae to raise as their own. The raids will continue, but this *Formica Fusca* colony has proved its capacity to endure and grow. Eventually they will surpass their parasitic overseers, and the continued raids of the slave-makers will reduce to nothing more than a mere inconvenience… for the black ant empire.

**You lose**:

* The defending colony was weak and not worth the effort of a prolonged raiding campaign. Instead the aggressors slaughtered their would be host. They are now moving on. There are more lucrative opportunities to be found elsewhere in the undergrowth.

## **Challenge mode**

**Mission begins**:

* Unfortunately, the queen chose her colony’s home... poorly. This earth is infested with *Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa*, the European mole cricket. Growing up to 45 mm in length, and with powerful forelegs, these beasts are masters of tunneling. The crickets have had their fill of roots for the day, and are now on the hunt for protein rich invertebrates. The queen and her brood are in imminent danger of being devoured.

**Mole crickets appear in your nest**:

* A mole cricket is burrowing into the nest! The ants must mount a defense quickly, or their brood will be forfeit!

* Mole crickets are burrowing into the nest! The ants must defend in multiple locations at once.