Toxic Friends in Creatures 1
Despite a good deal of happiness in my most recent update, I hinted at a rather troubling emergency. Krahtlaysi was still trying to find her place among the Norns, so a nasty illness decided to adopt her! Only trouble was that it made its presence known in a group of Norns, and this was a most contagious of illnesses. Through sheer luck, I managed to corral Krathlaysi away from the others before she could cough or sneeze. The poor little one fell asleep as the toxins took over her body. It was a medical puzzle for me to find out what was ailing her, and to keep her as comfortable and isolated as possible.
Courtesy of the Science Kit, I discovered a whole cocktail of toxins brewing in Krathlayi’s system! Histamine A meant that this was a contagious illness, and I successfully kept her away from anyone else. Caring for one sick Norn can be a challenge that doesn’t always have a good ending. Multiply the workload with a bunch of sick Norns, and it’s nearly always a disaster. Krathlaysi was a surprisingly cooperative patient, especially since she didn’t jump aboard the lift to spread those mean germs. I expected at least one other Norn to become ill, yet it looked like this illness had selected Krathlaysi as its sole recipient. How kind! Her glycogen levels dropped off pretty quickly as her body fought to get rid of the antigen. A couple of carrots helped her out immensely, and I had very few fears of her losing too much of her life force.
One instance when an illness almost won over a Norn was the video of Pipit’s serious illness. Fortunately for Krathlaysi, she was on the road to recovery in no time! I wanted to show what the end of an illness looks like in Creatures 1 at the chemical level. It can take a very long time for antibodies to build up enough to fight off an illness. Unfortunately, the Creatures 1 immune system is quite inaccurate. I addressed this partially in a previous case study. For most Norns, an illness comes to an end via this sort of chemical graph. There are some interesting things that can happen with genetic mutations, though! Krathlaysi was blessed with a standard set of immune system genes, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The important outcome was that she recovered without any issues! Definitely a nice way to end the day.
Krathlaysi felt very full of life after recovering, which prompted her to go off exploring. Not too many of my Norns had traversed the rope bridge above the jungle and temple. Krathlaysi found an interesting gadget, and spent her time trying to figure out just what it did. I fancied that she caught a glimpse of the mountains in the background and got a new perspective of life. She still had a long way to go in figuring out which Norns (or Grendels) would make the best company for her. Krathlaysi had a little more work to do in her social skills department. I had plenty of other work to attend to with the rest of the group. At least I could move on, happy just knowing that one of my Norns was in excellent health!
