(2)The spring feast takes course over the first few moons after the changing of the spirits, with entertainment of all kinds from seeing who can throw a rock the farthest to who can eat the most plant foods in the smallest amount of time. Still, many of these festivities were part of the first feast, and many believe this one to be of a lesser quality compared to the first. Two major factors affecting this are probably the inability to go out on a proper hunt due to the unknown people in the forest and the fact that this is the second feast and is essentially a copy of the first one. These are issues will surely be solved with time and experience however, and you're confident that you will be able to make the next one better.
For small-spear research: You know what makes a thwip sort of sound? A vine if you whip it about in your hand really fast! Maybe if we had a small fiber holder at the end of a thicker vine or stick it would release the payload spear really fast?
(6)One of the first things you get your people working on is the matter of how to move the small-spears large distances in a short amount of time, presumable with the assistance of a new creation. This turns out to be a tricky matter since you only have a *thwip* to go off to begin with, but a number of people quickly figure out a few basic designs with which you can base your experiments off of. The first design is based on the *thwip*-ish noise a vine makes when swung around really quickly, and is relatively simplistic. A vine proved difficult to use in the construction of something handmade, so you began with some thumb-thick fibres and managed to make a rope-like length of fibre that makes a good *thwip* sound when suddenly swung in one direction. A small-spear was then tied into the end of this length of fibre, creating a long rope with a pointy end. While this certainly has potential for other uses and it does technically fulfil the requirements you gave your people to work with, you consign it to a potential future project.
From there, improvements were made to this original design and another one made. The improved rope-spear was given a shorter length of rope to work with, but a series of knots were created at the end of the rope to allow a small-spear to fit into it snugly. The rope-spear would be flung backwards and then forwards in a sudden sweeping motion, sending the small-spear flying out at it's target. This proved less than effective however, as the small-spears had a tendency to fly massively off target and pretty much everything but it's tip hit the enemy in most experiments. It was also quite difficult to make for how bad it was, so this experiment did nothing but rule out a potential spear-thrower.
Still using the basic design of a length of rope with something at the end, one person decided to go for a much simpler route. Instead of having a series of complicated knots, he and his friends experimented with different lengths of rope connected with a series of simple knots at the halfway point and ending with simple knots at each end to stop the rope from unravelling. They found that this design was able to, with a not inconsiderable amount of practice, fling small-spears at objects at high speeds. They also stayed aiming roughly at their target most of the time, and it was discovered that thickening or thinning the series of simple knots at the halfway point allowed for objects of various different sized to be flung as well. Rocks, sticks, quite a few different things could be flung from this design. Most impressive was the rock-thrower version, which was capable of throwing rocks at such a speed they could shatter animal bones and sticks gathered into a rough imitation of an antler-beast. While a better design was soon designed for small-spears you think that these rock-throwers certainly have much potential use since no work is required to make rocks and the design is just two lengths of fibre and a series of simple knots.
The last noteworthy design constructed before you decided that you were properly satisfied was constructed partially by Ealrad, alongside a number of other members of the tribe that did most of the physical work. While playing with some fibres Ealrad figured out that the closest thing to the original *thwip* noise was made when the centre of a piece of fibre was pulled back and released while being held still by two other points. Though you wonder how he performed a task technically requiring three hands, you can not deny that his following design was certainly quite good. By tying three sticks together with fibre in a Y shape and creating another length of fibre connected to the ends of the shorter sticks, he created what is now being called a Thwipper after what he called it during his excited outburst upon finishing the design and bringing it to you. By placing a small-spear in the top of the Y and pulling the point-less end of it against the length of fibre, it is possible to fling a small-spear with enough accuracy and strength that it generally causes a lot of damage against it's target. Upon the creation of this design you end the experiments, stating that they have succeeded in creating the object you desired.
Lets tie multiple light sticks along a really long rope to make a strand of lights like a set of Christmas lights, and lower one end of the rope while holding onto the other end,tie off the top end to something secure but also maintain a good grip on the rope as we lower it. We should have at least three other strong people helping us when we do this.
(?VS?)Oooh, you remember what you wanted the ropes for! You wanted to explore the hole! Now everything makes sense.
(2)Hmmm, now how to get the light-sticks to not burn the ropes when lowering them down. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe you should try to create a sort of wooden stake that can be pressed into the vines coming out of the hole with the light at the point-less end? You feel like tying hot light to plant ropes and lowering them down a plant-filled hole would be a recipe for disaster.
(1)One day, the ground begins to shake lightly and you hear a loud, thunderous noise in the distance. When you look outside nothing seems to of changed, but you have a feeling that something very important just happened very far away.What are you going to do? There are no issues of immediate importance, but you're really aching to explore something for once. It has been 2 full turns of the moon since you began the small-spear experiments.
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Topic: The History of a Tribe: Year 3 Summer (Turn 38): Glory, Controversy, Death (Read 31234 times)