1. Search among your people for one who could become a witchdoctor.
You select a pair of men to become witchdoctors. They go to work using folk medicine. IT works relative wonders, with a 15% increase in survival of the plague.
2. Send scouts to investigate the smoke.
You send scouts in a boat to investigate the smoke. They will return in a month or so, barring disaster.
3. Consider research into grain grinding and breadmaking when possible.
You have no wise men to research with! You are also running low on men to work in the tribe, as the population increase your father began cannot keep up with your massive number of projects. More people are marrying and breeding every day, however, and the first boom of children is about to begin to work, so the lack of men will be over shortly.
We don't necessarily need paint or parchment.
>Have scouts search for bark or flate pieces of slate, as well as chalk. Save ashes and charcoal from fires, test them on the slates and bark (as well as chalk, if found).
There, we have simple, short-run mapmaking ability.
You send an additional scout (actually a farmer lifted from his work during the less stressful season) into the forest and strip large peices of bark from the trees. You gather the softest stones you can find and personally try to develop some sort of mapmaking ability. Unfortunately, your dexterity fails you, as does the stone, and you now have tiny peices of unmarked bark scattered about in front of your door.
The harvest was fine this year.
The scouts have set off to explore the surrounding ocean. Fair weather sees them off.
The ocean is calm and fishing is easy. You have many fish.
Pollen floats from the north.
The stormy weather ceases. Driftwood floats onto the shore.
PALACE COMPLETE IN THREE TURNS
The moon is almost completely black! Your people are terrified!
Food stockpile is FULL.
Wood stockpile is LOW.
Stone stockpile is LOW.
The tribe is working at 98% capacity, and the people grow weary.