[h3][center]Geological Expeditions I[/center][/h3] 

It was not long ago that Lyell was a young Kynikos staring at the moon and pondering mysterious. However, his true interest laid below the surface and he was almost resentful of the moon for calling him back to the prime outpost. Some of the others were satiated by staring at dirt and watching biological life slowly grow. He sustained himself by learning of rocks and metals, slamming them together to find out which one was stronger or dropping them to find out which ones were heavier. His childish games becoming more refined with age as with others of his kin. 

His true love was the lava river, which semi-regularly ebbed and flowed near the secondary outpost. However he had precious few times to visit it as it would take nearly all of his daylit hours to travel down and back to the surface. The older clothe-based Kynikos preferred to remain far from its heat and the dirt and grim of the caves in general. But he saw the rock-based Kynikos of the secondary outpost work, burying things when the magma was low and seeing what would happen to it after it raised and fell again. 

When he was appropriately inspired, Lyell moved to the secondary base to construct his new body. However, instead of stone and mud he had grander designs based upon the research he had diligently listened to and absorbed. He was not content to simply live by its shore, he wanted to explore it properly as those before him explored the corrosive sea. Others worried that could construct his body before his mind began to degrade, however his determination did not yield to his nature. 

His form was simple, and yet vastly distinct from both his rock-based and clothe-based kin. His arms, legs and torso was constructed from metals which did not liquify under the intense heat. The only breaks in the metal were for the arm and leg joints. Shards of obsidian were moved by his ghastly spiritual form to act as fingers and toes. He lacked a head, but he felt that feature was not strictly required and he was already straining himself and teetering on the edge of mentally breaking sending as long as he did to construct this simple form. 

Confident in his new shell, Lyell approached the lava pool. Its oppressive heat would ward off his kin, but he was resilient to it. It was mildly uncomfortable but he would adjust for the sake of exploration and discovery. He began to walk into magma, his metallic frame and glassy appendages survived the contact. It irritated his skeleton. As the top of his frame submerged, it was difficult to see. He roamed around, feeling around confirming that the rock tunnel continued downward from their location. 

His spent his time meandering around and gathering whatever samples he could. Occasionally rising to the surface to the deposit them as his simply made hands could only carry so much. Eventually, his skeleton began to hurt and he rushed towards the maw of the lava river. It was difficult with his crudely made legs, however he succeeded collapsing to the ground near his samples. His rock-based kin braved the hot aura of the magma and dragged him to safety. With another carefully grabbing his work, knowing that had they left it he would have rushed back for it. 

His limited success had caught several of the younger rock-based Kynikos attention and together they examined what went wrong. Together, they discovered that while the main components of his skeleton could survive the heat, it had impurities that would melt away after prolonged periods within the heat. Learning this, it was rather simple to repair and allow him to continue his work, knowing that he only needed to limit his time within the magma and spending some amount of time to expel that heat before continuing his expeditions. 

Lynell considered this slow and steady approach. The fear of destruction had tempered his youthful haste. He didn't even find anything of great substance as he sat down with his newly found followers to examine his samples. Until one of his assistant dropped one his oddly large and round rocks. Everyone originally looked at him with scornful glares until they looked down at it. It cracked upon and revealed a crystalline interior with small rock pods instead it. They studied the strange rock voraciously, until it began stranger. It began to rot and decay as if it were plant above, leaving just the rock pods and an earthen mush. Its changed only encouraged them to study it further. 

Lynell realized that his body was not prefect, and that he could not truly explore the magma properly. And so he would build himself a superior body, one that was capable of venturing into the very depths of the heat. And he was not alone in this endeavor. 

[hider= Story]Some Kynikos settled near a cave that leads to the magma tunnels. Lynell is interested in the magma tunnels, but has to mostly stay on the surface to watch the stupid moon and be inspired. They do real science near the magma tunnels, like wait for the lava to recede, bury something there, let the lava wash over it and then back down, and then see what happens. 

Based on this, Lynell constructs himself a body out of materials that can resist the intense heat. However it is pretty simple since he was a kid, it was a prototype and it was already taking a long time to make the simple body and he didn't want to go insane. He goes down into the lava tunnels, gathering some samples but eventually it hurts. Turns out his form isn't heat-resistant to remain in the lava indefinitely. This success encourages some other young Kynikos to follow him and help him in his studies. He starts to be convinced to take it slow, and it starts to sink in since he didn't find anything groundbreaking, but while he looking over the samples, someone drops one and it turns out to be a geode melon. Lynell and some of his followers to build a better, more heat-resistant body to further explore the magma tunnels. [/hider]