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[Iituem]

You halt for the better part of a day as Tawe works on butchering the carcasses and letting the meat dry on a suitable stone.  The group manages to find a shallow stream for drinking and curing purposes, and the skinned hides are scraped clean and cured quickly in water.  Proper tanning will take a more dedicated effort later, probably with bark, urine or brains, but the hides will keep for much longer now.  Collectively, the hides are sufficient for three Tiny objects or one Small and one Tiny object, and are of somewhat Average quality.  Tawe also produces around twenty bone needles and pins from the various small bones of the creatures, sufficient for most clothing purposes.

Tawe spends much of the afternoon whilst the meat is drying stitching the hides together with sinew.  Others gather enough food for the day in small game and berries, which is consumed.  When completed, Tawe has an Excellent Small Patchwork Hide, suitable for use in various endeavours (Cloaks and similar require a Medium hide, a Small hide will serve for Small objects, such as hats or shirts.  Tiny hides are sufficient to make a glove each and so on.)

Animal fat is more useful as a binding agent than a pigment itself, and blood yields a short-lasting brown rather than red, but Otholac is fortunate enough to discover some red and yellow ochre in the ground after digging about a bit in the clay by the stream.  He is able to mix the pigment with the fat to produce 4 units of Yellow Dye and 4 units of Red Dye, though right now he has to carry it in his hands or shirt due to a lack of vessels.  Rather than do that, he bundles them into the remaining Tiny hide and uses some of Tawe's pins to pin it together as a rough pouch.

This delay complete, the party head on for two days straight, eating the berries and one of the portions of meat.  On the morning of the third day, the sky burns red above but you can see the glistening bend of the river, crimson with reflected light, not more than six hours distant across the plain.  More than that, you think you can see tents gathered close by.

[mainiac]

"Praise the stars, another tribe." Gwen breaks into a grin at the distant sight of a human presence.  "We should head for them straight away.  They might take us in, but even if they don't, we might be able to trade our labor for some supplies and they might even have 'boats'" she explained, finishing the sentence in a foreign word.  "Boats are like giant fish of wood, which ride on the river and carry you to your destination.  Errec explained to me that in the people of the towns, boats are common things.  Perhaps that is what Rothar used to conquer the sea.  Anyways, we should think about what we can barter.  I will try to offer my healing craft and could some more herbs towards that end.  There is a herb called milkweed I am in short supply of... it sometimes grows in patches of thistles, let me know if you see any while we travel."

[Grek]

"I do not recognize these people over such a great distance. Perhaps as we grow closer, I will recall more of them. If not, I am sure that they will be as kind as your own people."

Bardic Knowledge on the topics of this tribe's identity, giant wooden fish, boats and milkweed, please?

[mainiac]

((Milkweed is something I just invented off the top of my head.  And if you wanted to know what it is, you could just ask Gwen since, y'know, she's a healer and it's obviously a herb used in healing.  But I went ahead and rolled you a 10 on a bardic knowledge check anyway.))

As Ortholac casts his memory back, he recalls a conversation he had with Gwen a couple years ago.  They had been relaxing in the sun on a warm summers day watching her sheep when gently muttered "Hey look at what we have here."  She climbed to her feet and walked over to a patch of plants like any other and reached into it.  "Just what I needed, milkweed.  It's what's in that drink I gave you back when you were having those ache's in your head.  It might not taste great but it's good for pain."  Having finished gathering the herb and stuffing it in her pouch, she returned to her spot in the sun.  "Anyway, your story?  You had just told me about when Laert had just returned to his village from the hunt."

[Iituem]

As Ortholac conveniently recalls, milkweed is good for headaches.  He's heard it can be mixed with a few more things to make a much more effective pain reliever, though too much will give the patient stomach cramps or worse.  He also recalls something about it being a poison, can be used for warts?  Not his area of expertise.

Based on previous travels Ortholac would guess this was the tribe led by Old Silver, a silver-haired old warrior, though this is based purely on the location - it could be one of a few more tribes.  Gwen reaches the same conclusion rather hopefully, as it was Silver's clan from which she and Errec escaped.

Also, you've heard about boats - they're much more common on the river now.  You suspect Gwen might be playing it up a bit for these country bumpkins who've never seen one before - wooden fish is stretching it a bit.  Mostly they're just hollowed out tree trunks, carved for speed through the water.


There is something that strikes Jorn as odd, though, and that is the scarcity of edible vegetation in the area.  There is still plenty of ordinary vegetation but it looks like whatever was edible by humans close to the river has been stripped bare, which begs the question of why the clan and its tents are still camping here.  Usually a clan would move on long before things got to this bad a state, in order to let the plants regrow and game renew before their return two or three years later.


---------------


Milkweed is an actual plant, or indeed a genus of 140 plants - it can be used as a poison and for wart removal.  The filaments are downy and can be used as hypoallergenic pillow filling.  For the purposes of this game, we shall merge the properties - but let's keep to less abundant plant names if not imaginary ones.

[mainiac]

((See, the problem with inventing a good name, is that the good names have all been taken by now.  Just try to come up with a good name for a band sometime.))

[Iituem]

OOC:  Got to fourteen before I got bored - three were already existing.

100 French Words; Byzantine Trading Network; The Dragon of Misfortune; Sulphur, Smoke and Ash; Demethylation Squad; Krebs Cycle Renewed; Grey Flannel Trousers*; Paradox Chasers; Surface Albedo; Lateral Solution; Neurotic Alcoholic Midgets; Black Forest Cats



Bands which already exist:  The Reticulated Splines, Lateral Thinking, Venetian Blind

*100 points if anyone got the Huxley reference.

[mainiac]

Krebs Cycle Renewed is an awesome name but I think it will have some trouble reaching mainstream appeal.

Anyway, I was expecting Gwen's homeland to be a bit more then 4 days travel away.  If they are just 4 days away, it wouldn't make sense for them to have their own language and whatnot...

[Criptfeind]

"Let us go meet this tribe, they must know the lay of the land to be able to live here for such a long time without leaving."

Jorn frowns slightly at this, it seems that they are over taxing the land here... Nature will not like that...

"Let us not stay overlong" He says and he picks up his items and starts towards the collection of tents.

[mainiac]

((Bump))

[Solifuge]

((First Exams this week. Still here, but preoccupied))

Tawe keeps his eyes peeled for any outliers as they approach... any villager that seems to be patrolling the area, or is separate, to introduce them to. It might look better if we can meet someone one-on-one and have them introduce us, rather than walking right into the village.

[Grek]

((Bumps for the Bump God! Updates for the Update Throne!))

[Iituem]

You approach the gathering of tents - village would imply a far too sedentary state to describe it.  As you reach the camp, you notice an elderly woman gathering a handful of remaining berries from a bush into a wicker basket.  There isn't a terrible amount in the basket - it looks like things are getting pretty bare around here.  The woman herself seems like she's seen healthier, more provident days.

Being the plains, and since you are not actively trying to hide, the woman sees you and looks up, nearly dropping her basket in surprise.

"Ho!" she cries.  "Who are you, and why have you come to Silver's Camp?"


-------------

Sorry, been away/busy for a few days.  Should be back to normal.

[mainiac]

((Just to detour for a second, are you still thinking that Silver's Camp was Gwen's original home?  I don't think that makes too much sense given the backstory of running far away from danger, but I could revise the backstory if need be.))

[Grek]

((It's been like 5+ years, right? So it could have been dangerous then and not so much now.))