Year 50,000: The Hybesh Valley is Burning

Previous history

     Year 0: The Pagh go on a quest into the mountains
          Year 30,000:  The Abequa enter the Great Valley 

(In preparation for this round, I gave them The Great Eagle and How It Led the Hunters to the Valley.)

In the twenty millennia since the players last visited, the Hybesh tribe moved into the trees and spread throughout the valley. They have not created a city there, for they haven’t the technology or the metals, but they have tied branches together with short thongs and leather strips, creating highways in the canopy. From there they were able to specialize in hunting the great huaca — the giant cow-beasts that the players gave them, which (even as huge as they are) have the ability to hide their trails in the undergrowth.

Having moved into the treetops, some of the Hybesh, called the Ascenders, have adapted for tree-climbing. Their feet are slightly wider, with a gap between the great toe and the other four; their upper body and grip is very strong and their balance is good. This is an adaptation that the Hybesh have absorbed from the arbor dogs, a type of arboreal predator with gripping paws that hunts and scavenges in packs, descending to the forest floor when needed and retreating to the trees otherwise. Arbor dogs also have a very perplexing set of calls, hard to locate; and they possess the ability to imitate the calls of others — the sounds of wounded prey to lure predators to or away from the pack; or the sound of predators to herd or drive prey. These abilities are sometimes also reflected in the Hybesh.

Another group of Hybesh, the Leapers, has adapted for the trees in a slightly different way, with more powerful legs for leaping, smaller and lighter bodies, and a vestigial set of second arms, just below the shoulder, that have skin flaps that can be used both to help glide and with fingers to grip the tree while they shoot a bow. Their adaptations are stolen from the dash falcon, a bird of prey that can, with its gaze, cast a slow effect on its target, sweeping down to pluck before it can escape. The trait has yet to appear in adapted humans.

The people aren’t neatly divided into two types, however. Some display adaptations of both.

The Hybesh are matriarchal, and the leader is chosen from among the most skilled, who take on the responsibility for the good of the people. Leaders are free to step down when they feel someone else’s skills might be more useful, and they have great respect from among their people. The matriarch has a few advisers from among the tool-makers (because Jebba chose as her mate the toolsmith). Because they were given strong reverence for life, they shepherd the trees as much as they shepherd the huaca, taking only what is needed.

But the river is rising and the fog is lifting, so the giant trees are no longer sustainable. Underbrush and smaller trees, ones that drink water from the river, are taking over. The drier air — they’re in a vast three-sided valley, rain is almost unknown — means there are more fires, which are not easily stopped. The huaca are declining; they are too big, and the world is growing too warm. Already the smaller animals — the arbor dogs and the dash falcons — are growing in numbers as tinier prey multiplies.

Scenario: Geyad the Old (F, 54) is the matriarch of matriarchs, leader of the High Tree tribe, and she is ready to pass along her leadership to others. With the change in the weather, the fog is not as thick, and the great trees cannot grow so tall. The huaca are harder and harder to find. Her skills are no longer up to the task, and her magic (aspected strongly toward Animal magic) cannot work unless she can find the animals. Many of her tribe have died in the fires that continue to consume their lands.

Two candidates have been put forth. Neither is very young; each was selected as matriarch of her own clan; each has her advantages. Furthermore, neither of them particularly want the job.

Duna the Golden (F, 32) is an Ascender. She and her people are predominantly also Ascenders, excellent hunters and climbers. Duna believes the Hybesh must adapt as the forest changes, and with her aspected magic she will lead the tribes to follow the game wherever it goes. She can teach her followers how to seek food, and how to sense foes; both are new spells unknown to most. “The forest always changes,” she says. “The river goes up and down. The fog rises and falls. Every year the huaca bed down in new fields, every year the arbor dogs follow the herds. We must change, too. One day, it will change again.”

Rizon Bow-Mistress (F, 41) She and her people are predominantly Leapers. She has excellent hunting skills with the bow, of course, but her aspected magic lies in Fire (especially Find and Extinguish, a new technology her people use to stop the fires in their lands) and Seek Plant (another new technology, in a brand new school of magic). She says they must protect the valley from fire, shepherd the remaining huaca, and bring back the great trees they are accustomed to living in. “We are the Eagle People. Long ago, the Four Hunters followed the Great Eagle and led us to this valley. The Great Eagle showed us that everything is a quest. Eagles do not run; they wait and watch and strike. She showed us into the mountains. She showed us how to build cages to trap the huaca, and now the huaca feed us. She has shown us how to build cages to trap the fires. That is our quest.”

What The Players Decided  

Once again, they set a course due Weasel.  Could there be two Matriarchs? they wondered.

What happens when the two matriarchs disagree?  I asked.

"Ah," they said, and went back to the drawing board.

"Actually," Dave said, "I kinda like them both.  They both have really good reasons for their choices that are backed by their mythology."

"There's no reason we can't have them both go their own ways," Joe said.

"Sure," said Dave.  "That's why the Great Eagle lays two eggs."

They stared at one another and realized that they had the perfect way of inserting this decision into the mythology of each tribe.  "What we'll do," Dave said, "is we'll go to the one tribe and say you're the real chosen tribe, forget about those others.  Follow the herds, it's all good.  Then we go to the other tribe, and say you're the real chosen tribe, you stay here and guard the trees."

The conflict between the two seemed to be settled — or at least postponed.

Results  

The Ascender tribe, in time, became bigger and stronger for following the herds through the hills and adapting to some of their traits.  The Leaper tribe gradually adapted for flight, although they wouldn't be fully-fledged birdmen by the next round.

The Great Eagle and How It Led the Hunters to the Valley

Many seasons past, the People lived on the river.  They fished the rivers and they hunted the herds.  One day, the great chief Pagh, who was a strong warrior, went to his medicine woman.  And he said, “The river is rising.  Is this a Sign?”

And Zifu, for that was how the medicine woman was called, said “This is not a sign.  Rivers rise sometimes, and fall sometimes.  All things change.”

And Pagh said, “Why do all things change?”  But Zifu did not know.

The very next day, the People came to a great plain, where they met all the tribes of the world.  There were the Serpent People, and the Fox People, and the Bear People, and the Tiger People.  And there were so many people there, the very earth shook.

The Serpent People said, “The earth is shaking.  Is this a Sign?”

And Pagh, who was very wise and learned the teachings of the medicine woman, said, “Sometimes the earth shakes and sometimes it does not.  All things change.”

And the Serpent People said, “Why do all things change?”  But Pagh did not know.

Just then the Great Eagle appeared in the sky, and the people were afraid.  And the Great Eagle brought forth Four Hunters who are her champions.

“O Great Eagle,” said the People, “why must the rivers rise?  Why must the earth shake?  Why must all things change?”

The Eagle did not say, but she said, “It is a quest.  Go ye into the mountains, where I have taken the answer and placed it inside an egg.  When that egg is hatched and grows, then you shall have your answer.”

And thus the People did so, and followed the Great Eagle’s words, and they went into the mountains.  And there in the mountains the People saw the Eagle’s nest, and in the next they found the egg, and from it hatched an eagle, and the people truly knew that all things must change.

But in the mountains it was cold, and in the mountains there was little to hunt, and the People said, “Where is there food?  Who will lead us?  It is very cold and we are hungry.”

Again the Great Eagle appeared, and again the Four Hunters appeared, and the Great Eagle said, “It is a quest.  Those among you who are best at finding food must do so, and whoever succeeds shall lead, and take for a mate any in the tribe.”

One man, Bkesh, said he would slaughter every animal, and the people would feast, but the Eagle said, “And what would you eat next season?  All things, even Eagles, come from eggs.  Who would lay the eggs?”  And Bkesh was ashamed.

Another man, Ktope, said he found a Valley, where lived the great herds of huaca, a thousand times more food than any man could eat.  But he said, “I do not know how to hunt the huaca.  We must sit and watch.”  And the Eagle said, “Would you have your people starve?”  And Ktope, too, was ashamed.

But then the medicine woman, Jebba, said, “Great Eagle, you have said we must not kill too much, and you have said we must not kill too little.  Your people are confused.  What must we do?”

The Great Eagle called to his Four Hunters, and they took Jebba away into the forest and showed her the secret of the cages, and they taught her mighty spells to tame the huaca, and Jebba did bring back to the Eagle People a mighty beast for their own, but only one:  such a beast in those days was larger even than five of the huaca today.

And the Great Eagle said, “You, Jebba, shall be leader, and you shall have your choice of mates.”

But Jebba said, “Mighty Eagle, I do not wish to be leader.  I am a simple medicine woman.”

And the Great Eagle said, “You have tamed a huaca and fed your people.  Who else among your people can do the same?”

And Jebba said, “I will lead my people, Great Eagle, but I do not choose my mate to be Bkesh or Ktope.  I choose Ammad, the Tool-Maker, for he helped me to build the cages.”

And from that day, the People of the Great Eagle did live among the trees and hunt the huaca.