Meet the Wolf IQ

After about a week of waiting, it seemed I had all the entries I was going to get for the Wolf IQ run, and my setup had largely been tweaked to my satisfaction, despite occasional bugs. So, I got down to the business of setting up the world.

For the most part, this step went smoothly, although I'm still having a couple of issues with the Other Lone Shee's Ark since the last update, and will have to include it later. I gave several minutes for the world's ecology to settle, including seeding bramboo plants in a few other locations, and then it was time to open up the first egg.

Dominatrix, a zebra norn requested by Pilla, was the first one out. Interestingly, my computer crashed a couple of times while trying to set up, and my experience with this little man was wildly different every time. The first time, he lived up to his name, slapping the training dummy - and any norn that came close - repeatedly. The second time, he was adventurous, going up and down the lift and generally exploring the warp room to its fullest extent. The third - and final - time, the Dominatrix that we will be dealing with, was highly reserved and gentle. He didn't move around a lot, and kissed or tickled the dummy and surrounding norns frequently.

Next up was Arti, a bengal norn requested anonymously via the Creatures Caves' chat, soon followed by Ulysses (butterfly, ylukyun), Potaterus (fallout, Salabasama), Bubbles (hardman, raimian) and Psuedodraga, a gargoyle norn and the first of my own additions. She was originally going to be called Psuedodragon, but I ran into the name length limit for Docking Station, and has to change it. Right around the time Psuedodragon was born, Dominatrix made it to the Norn Meso, successfully completing the IQ test portion of the run. Arti followed closely in his footsteps.

The nest to be hatched was Sausage, the second norn requested by Pilla, a non-expressive Bruin. As you can see, Bubbles hovered nearby protectively; I noticed her doing this with all of the new hatchlings that followed her. Hatching was paused for a bit as I watched Potaterus make it to the Meso, followed after a time by a lagging Ulysses. Psuedodraga was quick to follow. Having seen those three make their way safely to the Meso, I quickly hatched the last two eggs; Malfustues (a second fallout from Salabasama) and Fairy Draga, a butterfly norn entered by myself, again victim to the name length limit.

After this torrent of births, I decided to take a breather and check on where everyone was. Most of the norns were about where I expected them to be, but as I surveyed the Meso, it didn't take me long to realise someone was missing; Dominatrix! Fortunately, finding him was an easy matter, as the Norngarden always seems to be a favourite early in the game.

As it turns out, he wasn't the only one missing from the Meso. Despite having only arrived herself not long ago, Psuedodraga had clearly hot-footed it along to join the norn that left the warp room just as she entered the world. The two seemed quite fond of each others' company, and explored the room together.

Next up, it was time to add the final additions to the world; three Eem Foo norns previously hatched in another run. I didn't know about these cute little easter eggs before they hatched, so they were quite the surprise! All three are available for adoption at Creatures Caves. It took me quite some effort to get this picture of the set, and Malfustues was absolutely determined to be a part of it, the odd one out in a matched set. Shortly after these three were imported, Sausage also reached the Meso.

Now, you might notice that a name is missing from this tally of norns who has already reached safety. Bubbles was at this point an adolescent, yet she hadn't even made it to the top floor of the warp room. Malfustues hovered worriedly about her, and even gave her a kiss. It was tragically cute, if a bit concerning to see this norn left behind by her age mates.

However, that kiss of Malfustues' must have done the trick, because Bubbles soon took off for the Meso! The little green Fallout norn stuck to her side the entire way, as if guiding and encouraging her to reach safety and food. The little purple Bengal bum in this picture is Alfrad, who had decided to take a nap just shy of the Meso door, and entered shortly after the pair disturbing his relaxation time (the Eem Foo norns, while all exported as babies, were varying ages, part of why I added them last). Augustina was also not far behind.


Ametarou lagged a bit behind the rest, and while I waited to see if he would make it, I noticed that Dominatrix and Pseudodraga were not alone; they had been joined by Sausage, Alfrad and Ulysses. Thouh he left me to worry for a few minutes, Ametarou did eventually join the rest of our norns past the IQ portion of the run.

I definitely won't document the rest of the run as thoroughly as this, but I thought everyone might want to see their norns added and know that they all made it to safety. I hope you enjoyed this look into the start of the run!

Check out the Creatures Caves' thread for this run!