Before we continue, I would just like to thank mightymushroom for thinking of an ic solution instead of an ooc one. I genuinely appreciate it, saves me time that would otherwise be spent on nagging people into thinking ic >: (
Q: And how is pointing out other examples of decomposition leading to a solution for our distress?
A: What we need are effective "rituals" to prevent the rot spirits from attacking our food supply. To start with, examine the place where the food was kept. Also examine any places where other food has not rotted and look for differences in moisture, pile size, or type of item stored. Put that intellect trait to work figuring out what are the best procedures for storing the cave plants.
Point out, perhaps by personal demonstration, that freshly gathered plants are still good to eat. It is only when plants are unused too long (in a big heap) that they attract foul spirits. I assume until further notified that cave plants are constant year-round growers, so the existing cavern is a form of perpetual garden. Take and use what we need and trust that the growing spirits will continue to provide for us. Maybe get the shamans to make an offering to the good spirits by way of apology/propitiation so the bad spirits don't get in again.
If any of the overland plants are more storage friendly (I suggest items from the grains family) then perhaps the two sources could complement each other. We could use some baskets, keep up that research. Also, a cave full of plant growth is probably rather moist. Or we could try to invent drying racks?
(5)You, having a calmer head than your fellows, take some time to examine the area where the food was stored. Essentially, a few people got bored of having to travel deep into the cave for the best plants and decided to take some of the tastiest looking ones and bring them closer to the cave entrance, where most of the activity happens. Over time more and more people took some food up with them after a meal and threw them into a sort of indent in to the side of the cave on your left when looking into the cave, ready for a future meal. Then a group of people spent a few full turns of the moon taking food from the deeper parts of the cave and just piling them up in that corner. Since then, it's simply been where people get their food from if they're not already deep in the cave on some other business.
The issue is that some of those plants have been there for many, many full turns of the moon, as those first few fruits proved less tasty than the ones found deeper in the cave. You also noticed, when they were being thrown down the mountainside, that some seemed to of already burst, presumably under the pressure of all those other fruits. After examining the area compared to the rest of the cave, you noticed that it was incredibly moist compared to the rest of the outer cave, to the point that the ground was covered in a thin layer of liquid akin to a sludge version of the gooey plant food insides. You also went down to where the plants eventually stopped after rolling down the mountainside and noticed that many seemed darker than others without having the green sickness spreading through them. After ripping them open, you faced a rather horrifying surprise when a mess of gooey black sludge splashed to the ground. By repeating this process with a number of plants of varying darkness, you found that the darker the plant, the blacker and sludgier it's insides were. The fact that most of the food in that corner had some amount of this black sludge inside it worries you and, after a few moons of experimenting with these plants while trying to keep your people calm, you discover that they seem to begin blackening a 5-6 moons after being taken from the cave surfaces. However, plants you placed in their previous storage corner only lasted for 1-2 moons, and all plants lasted shorter the deeper into the cave they were stored.
You conclude that the moister the area, the quicker plants fall to the black sludge. After talking with your shamans, you personally demonstrate the safety of eating fresh plants from all over the cave. You then explain that moistness is caused by an over abundance of upset spirits. "The spirits of this cave are kind creatures, willing to feed those who need food, but they despise those who want more than they need. This black sludge is their punishment for our greed as the spirits strike at the food, eating the goodness and filling it with a foul tasting poison akin to how the evil spirits feast on the bodies of those once living who failed. The spirits of this cave are not evil - they are kind, but firm, and we should not ever take more than we need. They will surely allow small amounts of foods to stored in areas that do not intrude on their territory deeper into the cave, hence why they often wait some time to strike, but even then we should only store what is needed in case of sudden disaster. Finally, we should thank them for each plant they allow us to eat - for even a kind spirit may grow sad and evil if their efforts are ignored."
Though they remain wary of the plants for some time, your people eventually get back to their usual schedule. They happily take from the walls of the caves - but only when they need to eat, lest they anger those who take such good care of them.
(4)All of that experimentation, talking and getting your people back into their previous schedule took so much time that the moon has completed it's first full turn since your reign began. Now, however, you are back to your previous work - getting the fibres to properly connect into something that can be used to carry things, though you're no longer sure how useful it is after your previous revelations. Still, you're making good progress. You've ruled out many larger fibres and some of the smallest fibres, and are now working on connecting fibres of what you think are the right size into something solid enough to keep things from falling through it. You've been having more success lately, as one bright young lad figured out how to intertwine the fibres in just the right way to stop them from falling apart with other fibres at their side. The problem you're dealing with now is that, no matter how many fibres you add on to the sides, it inevitably begins to unravel when moved. Now you just have to figure out how to give the thing solid, connected sides that stop it from unraveling.
Something that has also become painfully clear is how difficult it is to make these things even when you know what to do. Because of the complexity of the connection required to expand the fibre outwards from the centre, you often find that your hands need to be doing three different things at once. One hand needs to lightly hold the fibre up so another hand can push a fibre up through a hole while another hand needs to push that fibre downwards through the next hole. It's certainly possible to do the latter two steps with one hand, but you've discovered that having one person hold down the overall square while another pushes a piece of fibre up and down with both hands to finish another line of it is a lot faster. The worst thing is, you're beginning to wonder if you might still be using fibres too thick, as experimenting with thinner fibres has shown that they are easier to deal with...
Ugh. At least these fibre squares are comfortable to sleep on.
(1)Your sleep is suddenly and rudely interrupted by a massive cracking sound coming from the left side of the cave wall! A wild-eyed shaman runs by and, before you can react, you hear him "EVIL SPIRIT ROCK!", the sound of something flying through the air, and then multiple more loud cracks and shaking. After running outside, you see that the area just left of the cave entrance is completely red and cracked. The smell of death hits you instantly and as you stumble backwards, still half asleep and now very surprised, you are roughly turned around by the shaman, who begins screaming at you about the evil of shiny rock spirits. The rest of the tribes comes out and stares at you in shock as you're screamed at by the shaman, who accuses you of purposefully killing the other shamans by giving them the evil spirit rock. Eventually he runs out of breath, and you have a chance to respond to his accusations.
So,
What are you going to do? It has been 20 moons since the pile of plant food was annihilated by the spirits of the mountain. Issues of immediate importance are the shaman screaming at you for giving them the blue rock. You don't know exactly what happened but, being intelligent, you're pretty sure the shamans probably just weren't careful enough with the blue rock.