Chương 150: Stonehammer 40k BC by teacookies chp 1 part 2
Take the meat and skin, but also specific useful bones only.
-We know what sinew is, as a building material, and cut it off separately to dry.
You're excited to impress Haa, now that you're back in her good graces. "Help. Dig bear. Butcher. Skin." You trudge through the snow, taking out your spear, and using it to knock away snow from the pile. With everyone helping you soon encounter the harder surface of the mound. But it's still soft enough to scrap away with the butts of your spears and eventually you uncover the bear's back.
The new people are sufficiently surprised at this, the uncovering of a frozen bear, seemingly randomly, so you let them in on the story. "We kill." You point to Kub. "Share kill. Us two." Haa looks very impressed at you both, but Kub plays down his roll.
"Kuh's kill. He plan. It work." Thanks Kub. You're a good guy. "Days ago. He kill. Giant elk. Same plan." She turns to you with eyes approaching the level of La or Na in respect. It feels good.
You finish digging it out while the new people start a fire for you, and you all drag the bear over to defrost. Once it's warmed enough to be skinned, it is, and Fa and Num get to work on cleaning out the hide. Haa joins them. Once it has thawed further you take your amulet, and slice off the animal's tendons and ligaments, carefully collecting the material. You haven't seen tendons this size since Kub killed the mammoth. The tendons from that hold together his hut.
You stretch them on sticks tied with hair-cord and plant them into the ground near the fire to dry. Soon the bear has been thawed enough to butcher, and you rub the rest of the flavoring herbs you have into the choice cuts, cooking them directly over the fire for your people's dinner. For the rest, you smoke them, underneath the raw skin of the bear. Both skin and meat dry as the smell of herb cooked bear fills the area. You all feast on the tasty, oily, meat. It's stringy but delicious.
Once the meat is partially smoked, and the hide is dry, you lower the rest of the meat near the hot dying embers of the fire and let it cook, wanting to hurry back and send your sister-villagers to Tul.
You affix the bear hide behind the sled, over the tusks of the dead mammoth, which you've tied to the antlers splaying outwards like they did when their owner was alive. And pile on the meat and sinew. After consideration you take most of the animal's bones, leaving behind the pelvis, and the bones of the lower arms and legs, though you take the finger-bones and claws. You place the skull and jaws over the tips of the antlers at the front of the sled, making the construct now look fierce.
Heading off now you clear the snow just before dark, and make camp, cutting down a tree and digging a hole to fill with plant matter. You hide away the food, and start up a blazing fire, the eight of you curling up between the two huge skins, falling to sleep huddled together. Haa nudges her way towards you and sleeps at your front. You fall asleep with a smile.
Dice: 1d100
87 = 87
Dice: 1d100
11 = 11
Dice: 1d100
46 = 46
Dice: 1d100
100 = 100
"I forage. Stay near." You let you people know before letting go of the sled to walk towards the forest.
"Gar check. At stops." He'll make sure you don't get left behind.
"Thanks Gar. You don't see much of anything for the first few hours, but then your eye is caught by some odd looking mushrooms. They may taste good, so you throw as many as you find in the bag, gathering around a pound or two.
But what you really want to find is more of the reddish stuff your amulet is made of. You keep looking and just about give up, until you find it near your village, but in a barely traveled ravine. All winter it was filled with icy, but now it has melted, leaving bear the eroded walls, damaged by ice. You find it, redder and more whole than the other rock across the river, but containing less in a more concentrated area.
You spend time thinking about how to extract it, when Gar comes to find you, calling out your name. "Kuh! Call back!"
You do so. "Gar! Down here!" He scrambles down into the ravine and marvels at the sight of the reddish stuff.
It's only a few hours walk from the village, now that you know where it is, so you could just leave it here, but you think up ways to extract it regardless.
Take the new people to see Tul as soon as possible, come back with a plan.
Hand a rock from a rope at the top of the ravine, and swing it lengthwise down the ravine to smash into the spot repeatedly.
"We go. Get later. Copper stay." You point to the red-stone, the 'cop-per'.
"Copper? Follow me." Gar goes to leave, and you chase after his quick pace, arriving at the sled soon after.
"Done forage. I help. Find copper." You point to your amulet and get nods of recognition. You take your place at the sled, and you all travel at top speed, the men pulling the heavy laden sled, and the women rolling the tar filled log.
You arrive at Wato's house, pulling out the chunk of herb rubbed bear meat you had saved for him from the sled. "Wato! Bring gift! Come out!" There's noise from inside his house, and he pulls back the skin-curtain, smiling at your group.
"What bring?" He looks expectantly.
"More meat. Cave bear." He takes it and bites in.
"So good. Bear good."
"In hurry. Bye Wato. See later." He waves as you leave, storing the tar log near his house, you'll want his expertise on how to use it later.
You head from Wato's to the village proper and are met by Na, who waits staring at you intently as you approach the village. You approach and she walks up to you. "Kuh. You return. I wait. And La. Come visit." She walks over to you and grabs your hand to pull you away with her.
"Wait Na." You turn to Fa and Num. "Take them. Visit Tul. Go now." You motion to the new people.
-Go with Fa, Num, Haa, and Drok, to see Tul.
+Tell them about the trouble with the sister tribe at least so it doesn't look like we're reneging on our promise.
"No Na." You pull your arm away. "Later. Remember promise. Later though. Important duty." You give a solemn inflection to the last word-pair, trying to impart enough meaning to assuage her disappointment. You lean in to whisper in her ear. "Worth wait." You wink to her and she goes red, stammering incomprehensibly, and fleeing to La's hut.
"We go." You turn to you sister-tribesmen, your sister, and your cousin. "Tul speak. Tul [uma]. [Ka] [uma]." You use the language you've picked up from them to tell them Tul is of their people.
"Relax. But. Watch sled." You tell the rest of your people. You eye Ru, the village dog, with suspicious eyes.
You travel with them on the long walk to Tul's cave. "Who Tul. To you." Haa asks.
"Tul Grandmother." You answer, and she brightens at that.
"You [uma]!" She smiles, laughing.
"Drok hurt?" You notice he limps.
"It nothing. Foot cut. While travel." He walks straighter for a bit gritting through the pain to show you he is fine.
"Take easy. No need." You clasp his shoulder. "Walk easy."
He relaxes loping back into his limping stride with a crooked smile, the contempt likely leveled at himself. You leave him be.
You reach Tul's cave, and enter. Smelling the smoke of her aromatic herbs heavy in the air. "Tul!" You yell, to wake her if she sleeps.
"That Kuh?!" You hear the shouted reply.
"Kuh here." You turn the corner and find her sitting on the bed eating some of the meat you gave her. You drop a hide bag filled with new meat from your latest trip. An assortment of choice cuts of bear and wolf, and a quarter smoked rabbit. "Bring gift. And people."
"Tul [uma]?" Haa asks?
Tul animates at that, standing up and quick-walking over to embrace her kin. "So long! How village?" They get into a discussion after that with you only picking up segments. Tul fills you in afterwards, in between her sobs, and the racking of her shoulders.
The village was attacked by a large pack of wolves and lost many. Weakened as it was, they managed to fight off an unknown party of human warriors, from an unknown and foreign seeming village. They killed them almost to the man, but a single warrior escaped.
If that wasn't enough, a band of big people came, and they had to flee to their highest caves, abandoning the low ones to the cannibal big people, who ate the living as well as the dead. High in the mountain they sit, with little food, and less hope. Their young starve, and their old throw themselves from the cliffs, seeking to prolong the lives of the rest.
Half the village has been wiped out, and they are in dire straights. They have food stores to last maybe half, to one of, a moon, before children start dying, and the grown turn to the culinary practices of those below.
The situation is much worse than you thought.
VOTES+Make plans on how to feed so many people.
"We fight. We save. We win." You stare at them, trying to show your rock hard inner strength, your desire to make this right. "Sister-village. We remember. Remember debt. Shall merge. Join together. As once. So again." Haa runs over to hug you at this, and Tul joins in. Soon you're all one big group hug, Drok joining in. Tul, Haa, and even Drok weep openly. Fa and Num get swept up in it as well, and soon you're the only dry eyed one in the room.
"Once already. Kuh save. Save again. Haa believe." She looks up with tear filled eyes and smile through her sadness.
"See Da. See Throk. Must speak."
You're group heads back to the village, hindered by the speed of Tul, who walks with you, fully engaged in this, she's unwilling to be set aside, alone in her cave.
You make it to the center, and your group's somber mood spreads like a poison, infecting all those who see you. The villagers notice the newcomers, notice that Tul has come down from her cave. They gather. Gather around you in the village center. Da exits Throk's hut, and Throk hobbles out, bending his great frame down low, to exit the building. You must speak, they must know of these things.
-Give a speech about the last few days, and become Chief by popular demand. Use this fiat to organize the rescue and secure work.
+Outline your plan about Copper, and how good it cuts, tell them to remember when you used stones to beat the Tall Men. You will make weapons using this stone too.
"People. I speak. From need. Great need. Listen well! Beyond river. To west. Kuh go. Big men. Kuh find. Kuh plan. They flee. Kuh take! People live! Bring elk. And copper." You lift the amulet high above your head so it glints in the light.
"Kuh clever. All know. None argue! Listen well! To east. Sister village. They suffer. Much death. Big men. Take caves. But Kah. Has answer! Copper sharp. Copper strong! Know where. Find copper! Make weapons. We kill. Big men. Take back. For village. Become one! As before! We win!" You start up the chant, and soon have the whole village chanting along with you.
"We win! We win!"
You drop your arms, silencing he crowd who watches now, waiting to hear your next words, hanging on them. "With Kah. Things better. Will make. All better. No more. Fear. No more. Big men. All tribes. Will fear! Fear us! The people! People old!" You turn to Haa and Drok. "People new! All people! Will unite. If follow. Will unite! Unite all! Will win!" You call over Da to you as your people chant. Da approaches. "Give amulet." She takes it off, silently as if seeing you for the first time, and hands it to you. You bring both half circles together, making a disk like the sun. You raise it, holding it in the single beam of strong sunlight which penetrates the tree cover with bright light. The disk shines and your people's chant grows louder. They add your name to it.
"We win! Kuh! We win! Kuh!"
You see Throk looking at you, his aged, sunken eyes piercing you. He walks over to stand beside his daughter. "Kneel!" He shouts, voice still powerful. And your people kneel. You move to kneel as well, but he clasps a big bony hand to your shoulder, nodding to his daughter. She understands, and helps him to his knees. His bones pop and crackle, but he lowers himself, all the way. The people on their knees do so as well. Prostrating themselves before you. Da is the last to do so, but everyone does. Even Haa and Drok kneel.
Rise! My people! Get to work immediately on copper extraction, and send people out to search for more deposits.
-Soldier Training [Get older, more experienced troops to train all of our warriors. Establish rudimentary command structure/squad units.]
PREPARATIONS! LOGISTICS! THINGS TO RESEARCH!
Dice: 1d100
11 = 11
Dice: 1d100
100 = 100
Dice: 1d100
67 = 67
Leadership lays heavy on your shoulders and the drive to provide for your people leads to a flash of insight. You think up a new type of weapon!
-Bow and arrows
"Rise! My people!" You shout, testing out you newfound authority. They all stand, some looking overjoyed, caught up still in your promises. Some looking uncertain. But they all follow you. You're people like you. You will need to earn their love, for their own good. You hand Da her amulet back. "We work! We ready! We fight! But." You go quiet, and the crowd murmurs waiting. "Not us. Something more. I make! Us more! Better!" You hop down from the the raised platform. All your thoughts coalescing in one perfect, crystal idea. You command. Finding people in the crowd and giving each an order.
You walk towards your sled, now a menacing looking thing. A giant bear skull caps the antlers, which flay out their tines. Behind the antlers rise two mammoth tusks, large furs draped over both antlers and tusks. The whole thing held together by ropes and leather strips. "Bring sticks. Bring ax. Bring hair-cord. Bring sap. Bring table. Bring bone-knife. Bring feathers. Bring stone-chips." You issue the commands, expecting compliance. People run off to get what you demand. You reach your things and take out the sinew, waiting for what you asked to be delivered.
When the table arrives, a log with most of it carved away to be legs, you get to work, stripping fibers from well dried sinew with your copper amulet. While this is going on the rest of your things arrive, and you thrust the fibers into Num's hands. "Make cord. Very tight." On the periphery you see La, weeping uncontrollably as she look on at you with a smile so wide it must be painful. Na walks over to approach you.
"Chief Kuh. I help?"
Chief Kuh. Sounds right. Feels good. "Take these." You hand her the fur-bag of various plants and fungi. "Find out. What are." She takes it, running over to La.
You get to work on one of the sticks, testing them all for flexibility. When you find a good one you carve it down with the ax, giving it a slight curve. Then you take the bone knife to it, notching both top and bottom carefully. "I finish." Num hands you a length of sinew-cord, and you thank her. "Make sticks. Thin. Long. Straight." You show her the dimensions with your hands and hand her the knife.
You walk to Doc. "Doc. Pull tightly. No break." You've tied one end of the sinew to the notch on the stick, motioning for him to bend the stick and loop the sinew around such that it maintains the shape. He does so.
"Here. Doc help." He smiles at you. "Thanks Kuh. Father old. Now rest. He earn." He nods at this, and you nod back, clasping his shoulder.
You look down at the weapon, sinew tied in bow knots to the the stick. You shall call it a bow. It's curved now, sinew held taut. Then you flick a finger over the string, it twitches quickly before going straight.
You see Num has made many sticks, and thank her. You take your amulet and make a notch on both ends of each stick, fitting in the best shaped stone-chips to the empty area, and tying them in place with hair-cord until they sit rigid. You do the same to the other side, but with feathers, thinking they help birds fly, why not these small spears? You find a perfect shard in the shape of an arrow, the symbol (>) your people carve onto trees to help find your way back when lost. You shall call the small spears arrows.
You're people stare in awe at what you have made, wondering what it can do.
You take the sap and run it over the sinew, rubbing back and forth until it sets and hardens. You take the bow, and place an arrow in it. Aiming at a tree in the distance. You draw the bow's string back, feeling powerful resistance from the wood. And let loose.
Dice: 1d100
45 = 45
Dice: 1d100
74 = 74
Dice: 1d100
5 = 5
The arrow flies, so fast you can barely track the motion. You aimed for the heart-tree, the oldest, tallest tree of the village, dead center. You shot from a distance, not expecting to hit the tree, only to show off what you hoped the weapon could do. It hits the side, penetrating the wood. You shout in glee at your work. If it can do that to a tree, the big people stand no chance!
Silence falls over the village as you give your victory whoops, and every eye drifts from where the arrow is buried back to you. For a second you think they will all kneel again, and some even do, but instead they take up a new call, and it fills you with a purpose you've never felt before. It sinks in. These are not just your people. They are YOUR people.
"Long live! Chief Kuh! Long live! Chief Kuh! Long live! Chief Kuh!"
-Get everyone to go out hunting for sinew and tear down structures that use sinew for it. Chip all the rocks. Catch all the bird. Bows and arrows for everyone.
After the chanting dies down you look around and see you're surrounded by all of your friends, with the rest of your village around your central group. At some point during the chanting Ao has sneaked her way past the crowds and clings to your side. You put a hand to her head to mess with her hair and she giggles. You see Tul giving you the first respectful look you've seen her direct at anyone who wasn't Throk. Doc stands, looking at the bow with envy or greed, all you can tell from the expression is that he wants one badly. Fa stares at you like she hasn't done since she was a small child, and worshiped you like most little siblings do to older sibling who treat them well. Gar just looking in disbelief, slowly back and forth between the bow in your hand and the arrow's feathered end sticking out from the tree. Num stands on the opposite side of Ao, looking at you as if you would disappear if she stopped. Da holds a hand to the amulet you gave her and smiles at you like you're the only person in the world. It feels good to be chief, like you were meant for this.
You can't see La or Na, they must still be hard at work. Looking at the plants you gathered. You remember you still have to give them a back-rub. But you do see Haa, standing in between your villagers and your close friends. You beckon her to come over, and she does. It's hard to believe you just met her yesterday. Ru walks over and she pets him, crouching down to play with the dog. You have thirty of your subjects with you, ten villagers always are in the trees, rocks ready, taking shifts. Perhaps that will be no longer necessary soon. You know how to command them.
"My people. I speak. Listen well. Some hunt. Dry sinew. Some hunt. Get feathers. Take sinew. From huts. Cut logs. Shape bows." You hold up the bow. "Make arrows." You hold up an arrow. "Some braid. Make hair-cord. Make bark-cord. All work. Make bows. All have. Then rest." You finish and your people move to leave going to attempt different tasks in the time before darkness. The village is empty now save for the old, the young, and your close friends. What is there for you to do?
Give the promised back rubs to La and Na.
You stand there in the village center, now empty aside form you, Doc and Kub, as the others have gone off to do their own things, or sleep. "Go hunt." Doc says, looking at the bow. "Come with. Up north." Doc and Kub go on a hunt in the hills to the north, they should be passable now that it's spring.
"Not today." You hand Doc the bow and the ten arrows you've made. "Borrow. Bring back." He's grinning ear to ear and saunters off with Kub, leaving you truly alone now, by the sled.
You suppose you should go to give the promised back rubs to La and Na. The time has come. You head for their hut and enter without knocking. You find them in their work room, fiddling with mushrooms. The ones you most recently found. "Not sure." La is laughing. "Good bad. Could be either." Na looks concerned.
"Chief Kuh! La. Tried mushroom. Acting strange."
"Kuh! Come here Kuh. She reaches out her arms towards you." You approach and she latches on. "These good." She lifts one of the ugly mushrooms, the last kind you picked up. A bit is taken out of it. "So relaxed." She laughs again. "Maybe poison. Not care. Still funny."
"La. Sit down." You place her in a chair. "Why try? Not animal? Give dog. At least." You shake your head, why would she eat that without at least testing it on an animal. That's one of the reasons we keep dogs.
"Is fate. You find. Good bad. Not matter. Is fate." She seems much less self conscious than normal. "Want more." You stare at her. "Know not."
"We wait." You sit there with her, asking about how she feels for a long while until it becomes clear she's not dying, or changing from how she is to something more.
"Maybe safe. Know tomorrow." You nod. She's still very out of normal. You'd built up a sort of attitude to use around her but things have all changed. You're chief now, she's your medicine woman. She's lost all pretense of haughty attitude. Just acting like a normal person. It's quite the difference.
"Still want. Back rub?" She nods frantically, trying to strip out of her furs and lie on the work table. This causes you to laugh now, and you pull her back from the table.
"La. Have bed. No?" You hold back your laughter to address her now surprised face, still wanting to go on the table.
"Oh! Yes. Bed." She seems as if she's just remembered she had one. You look to Na and she looks nervous.
"Na too?"
-Just give them both back rubs.
"Na too. Follow." You walk La and Na to their bedroom. And lay Na down on the bed, taking he furs down to their waist. "Just relax." You tell La as you begin to brush your fingers over her her and then apply pressure around her shoulders and neck. She coos and means as you move lower, kneading into her muscles. You stop once your reach the bottom of her lower back. La's fallen asleep.
"Na's turn." She strips off the top of her furs and lays down. You're a bit more tender with her, but find that she's actually the more stressed of the two. You find yourself eventually rubbing the knots with increased pressure to reduce them. She mewls in relief "Keep going." You rub out all the knots and she's sighing a long sigh that turns into a yawn before falling asleep.
You cover them both back up with their furs and leave the hut. You lean back and crack your back. You could use a back rub yourself. There's more pressing matters though. You return outside to a village teeming with villagers. Nub and some craftspeople are surrounded by most of the village. All around them lie bows in different stages of construction, strewn about near piles of materials.
The center is alight with the glow of a surrounding circle of flames, ten of them spaced out equally. On each flame sits drying sinew. Da oversees skewers of meat smoking over flames under tents of fur. Fa sits, guarding a pile of feathers from being blown away, occasionally picking some from the rock covered pile to add to an arrow shaft. The children sit making cord, supervised by Tul, their nimble hands making quick work of it. The unskilled men sit near large piles of stones, smashing them to create flakes picking up any the right size and shape. They also break bones, taking the appropriately jagged ones to fashion knives and tossing marrow into a large wooden tub to be preserved with meat as pemmican.
You're happy. You're impressed. It turns out all your village needed to become productive again was the motivation to do so. Lately It seemed like you and your group were in the minority, and the rest of the village just subsisted, living lazily. You will bring prosperity.
Now that they will be done with making a bow for every able bodied person in the village, what's next? You only have so much time to prepare.
-In the morning you bring the village to the copper deposit in the ravine. You send them out to search for copper.
-4 best warriors are responsible for training the rest of the village. 10 craftspeople. 16 hunters. 4 warriors, 1 teenager
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