A bit too weird, perhaps ?

[Captain Jonah]

I think the first evidence that the characters have found the ruins will only be the material used, because it will be no locally available material, and not the shape of any remnants, as the characters will hardly be able to comprehend what something of any shape could have been used for by an alien aquatic race.

While the characters may not be able to comprehend what the shapes are used for, the shapes themselves could still be the first clue. Above land, it's very likely that any sort of underwater ruins would look out of place - FREX, imagine aliens running across the Cadillac Ranch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cadillac_Ranch.jpg) here on earth. They don't have to know anything to know that something is out of place.

Not from the outside. Structures designed to be underwater and to have water flowing round them will not be square on the outside. They may look like domes of dead coral with some openings higher up needing ladders to access. Inside howerver you get more flat smooth walls and living space type areas.

Of course you have to notice the openings, climb up to them and go inside to notice all those lovely smooth mother of pearl type inner walls.

 

[rust]

Yep, and after some thousands of years, some earthquakes and all that
the domes will be collapsed, filled with debris and hidden under a layer of
topsoil covered with vegetation - basically a number of flat hills.

 

[kristof65]

But from the air those "flat hills" may have a pattern that seems odd, or have a slightly too geometric shape than one would expect. The human eye/brain is very good at seeing patterns and pictures, even where they might be truly random - IE, the face on Mars, Man in the Moon. I'm not saying these things will be obvious, only that an indicator might be there.

Even if it's a simple as one island being just out of line with the other islands in a chain, or having a slightly more regular shape, it will be an oddity that may attract attention, possibly in a completely unintended way...

Bill - "So, Bob, out of the 100 islands in this chain, why'd you pick this one as the first one to explore?"

Bob - "You'll laugh if I tell you."

Bill and Rachel - "No we won't"

Bob - "See those two flat hills over there?"

Bill - "Yeah?"

Bob (blushing) - "Well, from the air, they reminded me of Rachel's boobs..."

Rachel - "BOB!"

 

[Captain Jonah]

And thus was the greatest scientific discovery of a generation, the remains of sentient aliens, discovered :lol:

 

[rust]

But from the air those "flat hills" may have a pattern that seems odd, or have a slightly too geometric shape than one would expect. The human eye/brain is very good at seeing patterns and pictures, even where they might be truly random - IE, the face on Mars, Man in the Moon. I'm not saying these things will be obvious, only that an indicator might be there.

A good idea.

I will try to give a subtle hint with the map of the island in question, and
hope that the characters (ah, players) will see it.

Otherwise I can always use an NPC who mentions that a couple of the is-
lands have strange survey satellite data, and who asks the characters to
take a look at the data, and perhaps to find out what causes them - but
in this case most of the data would of course be false leads (a matter of
my game philosophy - the more help the players need, the more work
the characters have to do).

 

[Silvereye]

Some very weird ideas for your aliens, I'll try and explain what I'm thinking, but this might be confusing. The reason the "males" and "females" are this way round means that you can get a predator form in an ecosystem independant of adults.

The species has an extreme form of sexual diamorphism. The large predators being 'immature' "females" that can reproduce by parthenogenesis. The smaller social forms are actually predominantly "male".

"Males" are technically symbionts with "females" living inside their body. Part of thie lifecycle is that a planktonic "male" will 'consume' a planktonic "female". The "female" will migrate through the "male" body to the reproductive system and 'latch on'. A "male" will develop normally irrespective of consuming a "female". However being in the "male" body will alter the "female" development so they stop growing and release eggs at regular intervals. The eggs will be fertilised by the host "male" and then be released into the water where they develop normally. A "male" may exist and function normally without a symbiote "female", however it will not be able to reproduce.

An unconsumed "female" will continue to develop like a "male" and could for a time live amongst a "male" population. However without the "male" influence on their development, they will continue to grow until the "males" kill them or kick them out. The "females" will continue growing and develop into the predator form. They are able to release clones of themselves at the earliest stage in the lifecycle to begin the process again and hopefully be eaten by a "male".

The coral houses. The house coral can still be found growing wild around Pandora and 'the other world'. The aliens used genetic manipulation to make the house coral and the splicing tags remain in the coral. House coral has an unusual property (e.g. glows under UV light) that has no functional reason to exist. Especially one that the colony scientists can agree on (they'll not be thinking of GM tags).

 

[rust]

Some very weird ideas for your aliens ...

A very interesting idea, although probably a bit too complex for the cha-
racters to decipher - they will probably need the help of an NPC scientist
to discover and understand this unusual development of the species.

Thank you also for the coral idea.

 

[BP]

Saw this this recently... see the 'discovery' in waters near Turkey towards the bottom of the page...

This link from the other day also mentioned an interesting RL terrestrial reproduction method - the male basically lives inside the female!

(Talk about a conflicted Alien species )