((Wait, Chatutu will be leader? Dammit.))Make another seaworthy raft, with help from others who know how to build them. I will get this done if it kills me.
[3] You doubt there's any point building seaworthy rafts, since sailboats seem to work pretty well unless you screw up the sailing, but you try anyway. Eventually, you cobble together a raft that might work.
Might work. It doesn't have any sails, just a paddle for you to propel it, but you're not sure you actually need sails on a raft.
At this point, I believe the old man won't hurt me, so I begin to nibble on the fungi. I wonder if maybe I could draw a picture of civilization; a few stick figures and tents and animals, and point outside. This may translate well.
[2] The fungus doesn't taste very good, you find. If you weren't so starved, you might not be able to eat it at all, which you suppose is the entire point. The moss tastes like a whole lot of damp nothing as well, unfortunately.
[5] Fortunately, your attempts to draw civilization are met with approval from the man, who seems to greatly enjoy them for some reason.
Explain the process of spiritual strife as we observe the plants.
[2] Lanku seems to be following your train of thought, even though she doesn't quite seem to be buying the rationale, which admittedly you tend to phrase like a whole lot of gobbledygook in your enthusiasm.
[3] Meanwhile, the plants you put on the profaned ground seem to be growing... slowly. The other plants all around it seem to be growing much faster than it.
Start getting mushed food ready for the infants when they are born
[6] You prepare massive stores of mushed food to ready the tribe for the deluge of infants it will soon find itself in. You need to increase their survivability as much as possible, after all. The prospective mothers insist that this is unnecessary (considering that newborns are typically breastfed), but you know better than to listen to them. Mushed fish, mushed meat, mushed berries, mushed fungi, they shall want for nothing, you declare, not entirely sure how or where you'll store it to prevent it all from going bad.
[3] Regardless, time passes and soon the infant wave begins. One or two women, unfortunately, do not quite survive, but you do get a healthy, if not spectacular amount of infants, which you suppose is good, and approximately two thirds of them survive the first month after birth, which you suppose is acceptable.
Continue patrolling for threats. Maybe throw my name into the election for chief, just because.
[1] You wander out into the woods, looking for threats, and sure enough, a threat does find you - a party of haggard, maddened survivors of the Painted Tribe.
[6] Fortunately, they prove too hasty and unorganized in their ambush, and are simple for you to kill, though you do get shot with several arrows in the process, spilling a sizable, though ultimately not significant amount . Shrugging, you wander back to the village to get some care.
[6] Meanwhile, the tribe seem to believe you'd make a pretty great chief. After all, they already fear you too much to speak out against you, you seem to have no personal interests, loved ones or anything beside a burning urge to murder all threats to the tribe, and you did burn most of the Painted Tribe to death and personally killed a whole bunch of others, including the talky heretic who initiated the idea of there being a chief in the first place. You probably wouldn't even need advisers, given that the tribe is beginning to believe you may have supernatural powers. Or that you may in fact be some kind of murderous wind spirit wearing the skin of Tuktu, as the rumors go. In fact, they'd not be against making you chief immediately instead of Chantututu if it meant they could build a throne for you where you could sit down already, and consequently stop wandering around and unsettling people.
[4] By the way, you heal pretty nicely from your arrow wounds after Kutuk administers much-needed aid, and the scars you get look very nice, too.
Enter a meditative state where I receive the wisdom of the spirits and paint them directly onto a nearby rock surface, if available. If not paint on wood.
[4] You receive some dreamlike wisdom, ideas of distant and not so distant events that may or may not happen, and paint vague images on rocks based on this knowledge. You find the images elegant, for they represent very little in a clear fashion, and thus are faithful renditions of spirit knowledge.
Ask nuuta who she thinks should be chief
[5] She says both candidates have their good and bad points - Tuktu's chiefhood would provide a sense of security due to how efficient he tends to be, though him being also quite ineffable and frightening makes it likely that his unsettling influence would cast a dark shadow over the tribe, which would be quite a terrible way to live indeed. Chantututu seems like he would be a far more accessible leader, and possibly even capable enough if he grew a little in the mental sense (maybe through Lanku's influence), it's terribly unlikely people will find his antics amusing if he were to become the leader of the tribe. She believes that maybe neither of them are good for the position. She thinks somebody more average and level-headed should take the position. Like you, for instance. Or she herself. Or Haphan the scout. Or anybody else who isn't particularly strange and crazy.
Using the skin of the animal, create a pack to carry any meat I do not finish, and a waterskin. Construct a crude spear to help ward off any more wolves and carnivores. Press onward, wondering if I will come across any Forestpeople; they are hardy folk who usually keep to themselves, but perhaps they will be hospitable enough to help out a poor and weary traveller.
[4] The skin of the animal proves useful in the creation of a pack and a waterskin, and the meat you do not eat is soon enough packed within the former. You now feel far more ready to face the wilderness, but not quite prepared enough.
[4] A very crude spear is also simple to make, just a sharpened stick, really, but it should serve you well.
[2] And with that, you press onward through the forest, sustaining yourself with the meat you have obtained and the water that's around, though you encounter no Forestpeople. On the other hand, you encounter none of the painted devils also living in roughly this area, so you may have lucked out just a little.
Leisure speed is fine indeed. But maybe I can go a little faster? After all, plains are not that safe...
[3] After over a month of leisurely walking, you finally have come back to the tribe, finding that things appear to have very much settled down, although they seem to be trying to elect a chief presently, which you find mildly confusing.
((Nooo how could the tribe's idiot not be the best candidate?))
Chantututu, noticing a change in the mood of his constituents, stops dancing and starts miming. He mimes the tribe becoming militarily dominant in the area under his wise leadership, and the foreigners being led into a false sense of security by the tribe's unassuming, lumpy leader. He hopes that his strangely un-jolly platform of intolerance and general hatred will sway the undecided.
[2] Your fanciful, if serious miming really stands no chance in the face of the raw animalistic terror people associate with Tuktu's mere presence, you find.
Leave the tribe,and walk to the north.
[1] You begin walking to the north, finding yourself in a distinctly unfriendly patch of the woods, where you encounter the last party of painted tribesmen still at large, the final remnant of a once-proud tribe's scouting and infiltration tradition.
[1] You are promptly recognized, then murdered painfully, your corpse skinned and your meat devoured (or preserved) by the fierce scouts, and they create a variety of survival supplies from your hide before moving on to the north, deciding that they have had their fill of revenge and escalation, and that more of this foolishness will bring nothing but pain to all parties involved.
>ASSESS LIVEABILITY OF MY IMMEDIATE SURROUNDINGS, I.E CAN I COMFORTABLY STAY HERE MUCH LONGER
>ALSO REMEMBER WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THAT REAPER FELLOW... IF HE MANAGED TO WEASEL HIS WAY INTO THIS STRANGE, VIOLENT TRIBE, SURELY I CAN DO THE SAME. WOULD HE TRY TO TURN THEM AGAINST ME ON SIGHT?
[6] Theoretically, you could stay here indefinitely. You already know how to evade the beastly man of the delta tribe, and can live off the land perfectly well now that the larger animals have returned. If anything, your stay here should be more comfortable than before, though if you wanted to stay here you probably should move a bit further away, since if you weren't so careful you could have been discovered many times already.
[4] Also, the reaper fellow probably harbors no real ill will toward you, and it is fairly obvious he has no real standing in the tribe, and is simply tolerated by them. So even if he denounced you, you doubt it would matter much.
Author
Topic: History: the Minimalist RTD (Read 122367 times)