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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 2172562" data-attributes="member: 508">THE ECOLOGY OF THE CHUULHad there been any light in the cavern, the hatching of the eggs would have been a marvel to behold.  Naturally, there was not; this was, after all, a cavern deep in the bowels of the Underdark, a world without sun, or moon, or stars.  Furthermore, the eggs were not just lying upon the ground for any to see; they were in an underwater pool, washed by the silent ebb and flow of the cool, dark waters that dripped down from unseen stalactites far overhead, and was fed by a rapidly-flowing stream that wound through the subterranean caverns like a drunken snake.Had there been any light in the cavern, any luminescence to pierce the dark, wet gloom, the eggs would look like nothing so much as a cluster of plump, red berries, ripe and ready for the picking.  But these were no berries of the surface world; these were each the size of a man's clenched fist, and grew not from tree or bush but rather hung from the underside of a heavily armored, fan-shaped tail.[1]  The tail, in turn, belonged to a creature of nightmare, a thousand pounds of carapaced horror, the mutant queen of all lobsters.  She stood as motionless and silent as a statue, her chitinous body half in the pool of water and half out, gazing ahead at nothing in particular.[2]Had there been any light in the cavern, even the faintest of underwater illumination, one might conceivably see the first of these berries burst open like a piece of overripe fruit, spilling forth its contents into the cool, clear water.  One might see the creature thus born:  A clawless lobster, an oversized crayfish, a monster shrimp; not quite any of these, but close.[3]  The creature escaped the shell of its berry-colored prison but dared venture no further into the strange new world.  Rather, it clung upside-down to its mother's tail, chewing idly upon its egg-case.Nearby, another egg popped open, spewing forth another of these not-quite-lobsters.  Had there been any light in the cavern, one might see these two siblings eagerly crawl toward each other, skittering awkwardly over the unhatched eggs that stood between them.  One might see their initial, clumsy attempts at contact:  The blind groping toward each other; the brush of a newly-formed leg against the other's transparent, new carapace;[4] the final resting of an armored head against the other's as their limbs stretched out in a tentative embrace.  And one might see the complicated mouthparts of one creature rip deep into the other's still-soft flesh, ripping and tearing and biting as the other thrashed and flailed and floundered.  One might see the spectacle repeat itself, many times over, as hatchling after hatchling burst forth from their berry-like eggs, only to enter into a cannibalistic frenzy with their newborn siblings.  One might see a few hatchlings escape from this inverted death arena, this upside-down battleground, taking to the unknown dark waters rather than face their ravenous kin.  Perhaps one might even see the fate of several of these bold risk-takers, as they were devoured by their mother after swimming too close to her mouth.[5]But alas, there was no light in the subterranean cavern, no glimmer of illumination to shine upon the secret doings in the eternal blackness of the Underdark.  Thus, these events transpired unwitnessed save for the participants themselves.  Perhaps, in the long run, it was just as well.</blockquote>

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