Previous history
In the intervening millennia, the Brun — always a tribe of colder climates — migrated north and spread out across the coastal plains. Competition for game became greater as their numbers increased, pushing some of the Brun out onto a cold, marshy, wind-lashed peninsula (orange arrow). The seas were lower in those days, so a mid-oceanic tectonic ridge took on the appearance of an archipelago, and low-elevation tidal flats made interconnected land masses out of what would, in twenty thousand years' time, be islands.
The Brun, now called the Oparron, are accustomed to following herds of game, but food has become scarce on the peninsula. Stronger tribes are forcing them out of the good hunting grounds. Lately, especially during Round 2, they have turned to fishing to support their tribe, and what little fish that is caught is shared by all. Rationing, such as it might be called in the Paleolithic, was rigidly enforced. The safety of the tribe, their ability to resist encroachment by other tribes, depended on strength in numbers.
One rainy evening during , three of the Oparron discovered a way to capture several scuttling crabs on the sandy beach. They roasted the crab secretly, away from the rest of the tribe, and ate them. Almost immediately thereafter, those tribesmen died horribly: they were gasping for breath, their faces red and blotchy, and they were gabbling on about their impending doom.
The leader of the tribe is Zoad the Axe (M). He wonders if the crabs are simply poisonous. It wouldn't be the first time the tribes had discovered inedible foods. His medicine man, Olar the Mystic (M), declares that it's something in the crabs which is poisonous, possibly because they come from the salt sea. If he were to cleanse the crab meat with his Purify Water spell, perhaps it would be safe.
The explanation doesn't sit well with the overzealous enforcer, Javez the Huntress (F). She says they got what was coming to them. It was their punishment by the gods for failing to share the meat that they caught. Let that be a lesson to all!
Zoad the Axe has summoned the Great Spirits for answers.
What The Players Decided
As soon as I had described the symptoms of the tribesmen's death, Joe the Leader (who is a nurse) muttered sarcastically, "Great, now we have to invent Benedryl." He had spotted quickly, as I had suspected he would, the symptoms of an acute allergic reaction to shellfish.
Originally I had intended for this to be a way of establishing dietary law. It would not surprise me to learn that the rules of kosher and halal each stem from a rational, logical warning against certain types of foods and methods of preparation, the Bronze Age equivalent to "wash the cutting board before you start." I had also mused that the Players might take action here to purge the tribe of those members with an allergy, which might later preclude the birth of someone important. Those were just vague plans, and I hadn't formulated anything specific. Fortunately, they handed me a gift on a silver platter, as Players sometimes do: they gave me a direction that was much more interesting than the one I'd thought of.
"First of all, that shaman guy, that's not going to work," said Joe the Leader. "Purify Water? That's not going to make the crabs hypoallergenic. Connor, can you teach them a Neutralize Poison spell or something?"
"Uh... I don't have it," Connor said.
"What spells do you have? No Tell Time, no Neutralize Poison..."
It was true. I had decided that a Neutralize Poison spell hadn't been invented by this stage in the Paleolithic. Connor hadn't taken it because he wasn't allowed.
"If we agree with the Huntress," said Dave the Artisan sagely, "she's going to go on a power trip. She'll love that, being able to crack down on everybody. We don't want that to happen."
"Can we lead them off of this peninsula?" asked Joe the Leader.
They're not really strong enough to battle the other tribes, I said. That's why they're here.
"We could help them. But they'd probably still lose a few, and they've already lost three." Joe considered it. "But they have to eat something. How many more would they lose if we just had them all eat some crab?"
I shrugged. Try it and see.
Eventually they came around to this idea, but as I remember it, they took some time getting there. In the meantime, Connor the Mystic busied himself inventing a new ritual for the Oparron. The bodies of the dead who had been poisoned by the crab, he said, should be cleansed. Burn bodies, and boil the skulls—
"Connor, what are you doing?" asked Dave the Artisan.
"I'm teaching them a new ritual," Connor said. "It's for purification."
Sensing that Connor was becoming sidetracked with inventing new and complicated religions involving skulls and death, Joe and Dave quickly moved to their conclusion. The Players were to arrange a feast of crab, fresh from the sea. All of the members of the tribe would eat. It would be a rite of manhood.
"A rite of manhood?" sneered Javaz the Huntress.
"A rite of passage," Joe amended himself. "Everyone must eat crab."
"Everybody must smear berries on your face," said Connor.
Berries, I said, and scribbled a note in pencil. Interesting.
"No, no, I didn't say that!" Connor protested.
"Too late," said Joe and Dave with resignation.
"Everyone must eat crab," Joe said again, "and if you are strong, you will prove your worth."
Result
They had their feast. Two more of the Oparron died, but they had proved that seafood was indeed (usually) safe to eat. The Oparron would, in the next millennia, move out onto the North Ocean island chain.
when is burning skulls ever a good idea?!?!
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