A Small Quest

A Small Quest by Hatticus Finch and Tippler
	Thread 1; Thread 2; Thread 3;
	Discussion;

A snake is shrunk and must explore the ruins of an ancient ant world with two gal pals. Art generously drawn by Tippler.

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Sam's inventory is tracked on the wiki.

Major Characters

Samson D. Smith

Our protagonist, Sam to his friends. A Talzoran student of archaeology and budding adventurer. He can be a little unperceptive at times.

Jaina

Formican and self-appointed defender of her village. More cautious and reserved than her older sister Anet.

Anet

Formican and self-described purveyor of shiny objects. Likes to go exploring with her younger sister Jaina.

Pent

A scrappy young scavenger from the little big city. She’s had a hard life and knows what it’s like to be both hunter and hunted.

Bright Eyes

A genetically modified Formican with an inquisitive mind. Like other Beformicans, she is incredibly gifted physically, but has reverted to a semi-feral lifestyle.

JNET

A clever knowbot left to gather dust. Her joints are feeling a little stiff.

Minor Characters

Gail

A Talzoran classmate of Sam's.

Elder Stone

The leader of the Formican village. She does her best to maintain the status quo, like her predecessors before her.

Elder Styx

An elder of the Formican village and keeper of the lore. He remembers many things the Formicans have forgotten, such as anime.

Mira Pluton

Anet and Jaina's mom. She has a big family to watch over, but she loves her nine daughters (and three sons) very much. Her husband Pyke is a scribe for the colony.

Gravel

Pent’s father, elder of their small family. Prefers a nice quiet, dark corner to get away from the headaches of daily survival.

Locations

The Great Temple

A megacomplex on the Formican homeworld believed to hold a massive necropolis. The interior of the structure is shielded against all known forms of observation.

The Fungal Wastes: A room inside the Great Temple overgrown with fungus. Someone must have left the refrigerator door open.
The Formican Village: A small colony of Formicans has made this broom closet into a multi-level sanctuary for their agrarian civilization.
The Overgrown City: A hidden tunnel network connects the Formicans' now quiet megacities to the outside world.
The Abandoned Classroom: A dusty vestige of the Great Temple's original purpose. Somewhere lurking among the detritus, survivors are recolonizing the old world.

Plot

Thread 1

Our story begins as Sam disobeys safety protocols on the Great Temple digsite, triggering a hidden machine that shrinks him to an inch tall. Before he can catch the attention of Gail, he is caught by a Formican watching them from the shadows. Jaina introduces him to her sister Anet, and forces him to return with them to their village to await judgment. After crossing the vast open spaces of an ancient break room, Sam discovers the last home of a civilization the galaxy thought lost to time. Knowing that his disappearance will lead to suspicion on the outside either way, the leader of the village tells him how he can return to normal size, asking him to keep the secret of their village to himself. The process is not an easy one, however, as the machine he needs to reach lies deep in territory the Formicans themselves have not been to in many generations. Granted some ancient maps and the two sisters to guide him, Sam sets forth on a quest to restore his normal size. The first leg of the journey takes him through a tunnel network sealed since the Formicans' exodus from their underground city. After navigating many twists and turns, he finds a backdoor leading up into artificial sunlight.