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.

Round 3

The third round of the game was actually our second actual physical gathering, since we had played the first two rounds in one night.  That had required a certain amount of anticipation on my part; to prepare the various alternatives in  the second round, I had to predict a range of actions the players might take, translate those actions into major historical forces, and devise new scenarios based on how I estimated that society might evolve.  That method had limitations, in particular the difficulty of predicting how civilized humans would view primitive historical crossroads.  I had already seen how the players were averse to taking extremes.  Where the ancient civilizations were apt to solve their problems with brutally direct methods, with war and conquest and death, the players were trying to shepherd their cultures with compromise and diplomacy.

Diplomacy doesn't stop famine.  Compromise doesn't stop the seasons.  Until their civilizations had the means to survive the great catastrophes of their age, diplomacy and compromise would be limited tools.  Still, I couldn't see the players abandoning them entirely, and therefore their actions would be hard to foresee.  At this stage I concluded that one event at a time would be best.

Since so many years had passed between the last events and these, I decided that the clans* had entirely forgotten the true nature of what had occurred.  They had passed down their recollections and interpretations from one generation to the next, and the actual events had been converted from history into myth.  To represent each clan's interpretation of the historical events that preceded it, I began this round to present the players with a written Myth for each clan to precede the Event.

Year 50,000:  The Interglacial Period

All tribes are being affected by the major event taking place in the world's geology:  the planet is getting warmer.  Everywhere, glaciers are retreating, ice is melting, and seas are rising.  What were once seashores are becoming tidal flats, or drowning in salt water.  The warm subtropical band around the equator is becoming a tropical sauna.  Plants and animals are adapting to the warmer temperatures, migrating in search of food, or dying out, changing the balance of flora and fauna available to the hunter-gatherers.  Their ancestral hunting grounds are changing.  In all the clans, there is environmental change that they are just barely conscious of.

The Thrian Telepath Chooses.  The devotion of the Thrian aguen herders is tested when the ancient bridal exchange ceremony is in direct conflict with their promise to keep the herds safe.  The players cannot decide whether to allow the Big River tribe to slaughter the herds, or to destroy a new civilization of half-human, half-aguens, and so they put the entire decision into the hands of a telepath descended from Temu.

The Evanu Exile The Swift Hand Clan.  When a small tribe of Evanu break the law against mining without the supervision of a priest, they are exiled.  The players choose the method of exile, sending the Swift Hand clan into the caves, accompanied by the rock goat.

The Hybesh Valley Is Burning.  Two distinct tribes of the Abequa have evolved:  the Ascenders, who are strong climbers, and the Leapers, who appear to be developing the capacity for gliding between the treetops.  The two tribes disagree how to handle the raging forest fires that are consuming their valley — is it their quest to stay and guard the trees, or to follow the herds?  The players elect to send the tribes in both directions at once.

The Teyo Nami And The Moon Tiger.  When the moon tiger confronts the people of Teyo Nami, separating their souls and frightening the people, the players are called in to destroy it.  The question of placing the souls back into their rightful bodies, however, they leave up to the tribe.

The Bellaron Sacrifice Chamandra.   They have crossed the island chain in search of new lands, for the seas are rising.  They have finally come within sight of the mainland, but it is a very great distance to sail.  The tribe cannot decide between following their leader to the mainland, or following Chamandra, who claims to be immortal and is not afraid of the rising waters.  Immortal, are you? the players ask.  We can disprove that theory.

Players

Joe the Leader

Dave the Artisan

Connor the Mystic
Jack sat in this week.  He was a long-time roleplayer I had known for years, but who hadn't been free for Game Night lately.  His frequent absence was one reason we had started this campaign in the first place.  Not that I'm blaming you, Jack.  Jack was assigned the role of the NPC Storyteller and loremaster.

*About my use of the words tribe and clan:  I will try to maintain clarity when I write this blog, because we are talking about so many different and varied people.  When I say clan, I mean many thousands of separate hunter-gatherer tribes that reside in that general area and have the same mythical interpretation of history. When I say tribe, I mean one hunter-gatherer unit consisting of 30-60 people and only a few interrelated families.  The players, as the Great Spirits, are called down by a tribe which is facing a crisis that I feel will help to shape history to come.  The survival advantages thus conveyed to that tribe will help its stories spread to the rest of the tribes in that clan.  By no means are all the tribes within a clan identical or monolithic in culture, but they will share some common elements for the sake of simplicity; there's simply no way to create the complexity of ten thousand separate tribal units, each acting on its own.

Rounds 1 and 2

The very first gaming session was in some respects the least interesting, even though we covered two rounds of progress.  I say this not because the concept wasn't good, and I don't mean to suggest that the Players weren't keen to sink their teeth into such an unusual concept.  I merely mean that none of us had any idea what to expect from a campaign of this kind — its scope, its magnitude, its complexity.  We didn't know what kind of consequences we might face.  I didn't have a good notion how even to prepare such a campaign, because as far as I knew, nobody had ever tried anything like it.

Since we had to cover two rounds of the game in one night, it meant I had to prepare Round 1, Year Zero with a limited palette of consequences.  I imagined various cultural forces which might come into conflict, such as curiosity, mysticism, tradition, medicine, discipline, fear of the unknown, and pit them against each other in what I hoped were relative binary ways.  Either mysticism would win, I expected, or rationality would.  I was prepared for either contingency, with a string of if-then statements woven into my preparatory materials.  If the players chose to do X, I would follow up with Scenario B, and so on.

I hadn't anticipated the dedication to which my apparently Taoist campaigners consistently sought the Middle Path.

Players
Joe:  the host of our gaming nights, my best friend for 25 years, and the Leader of the triumvirate.
Dave:  a friend of several years, whom I met while doing a play for a local theater company.  He would play the Artisan.
Connor:  a friend and co-worker of Dave's who had been incorporated into our gaming group; his role was the Mystic.

Year Zero:  The Earth Gathering
The Dar tribe loses their leader and their medicine man as a result of an earthquake which destroys their cave.  The survivors seek answers, blaming a deformed six-fingered child of Uman, but the Great Spirits deny them justice.  In fact, the Great Spirits insist that the Dar offer up one of their women to Uman's deformed child as a bride when he comes of age.  A Dar midwife, their only remaining healer, attacks Uman in her rage and despair and is killed.

The six-fingered son of the Uman tribe is allowed to live despite his obvious mutation, and no special mystical significance is attributed to the earthquake.  The Uman boy is prophesied to become a great leader and wizard, and is promised a bride of the Dar people when he comes of age.

The curiosity of the Pagh toward the reason for the earthquake leads them on a quest into the mountains, to learn why the earth moves.  Perhaps the Earth has rising and falling cycles, as do the Sea and the River.

The Kufu are encouraged to add a medicine man to their tribe, and take on Tor the Sage of the Pagh.  They return to their ancestral lands with a renewed appreciation for the value of strong medicine.

The Brun warn that although the sign of the earthquake is meaningless, the sign of the lunar eclipse is worse.  Their fears are ignored.  The Brun return to their cold northern lands, unsatisfied.

Year 30,000:  Hominid Migration
The Drim Acquire A Telepath.  The tradition of bridal exchange is interrupted when the Drim suspect a young healer to be possessed by evil spirits.  The Great Spirits demonstrate that her telepathy is actually beneficial, for young Temu is the equal of old Ral the Raven in a contest of skills.

The Mannut Discover Mining.  The Mannut tribe discovers a copper deposit when an avalanche destroys their cave.  Nobody is harmed, but the Great Spirits warn that any further investigation into the stones of the earth would require the presence of a skilled shaman.

The Abequa Enter The Great Valley.   After wandering for millennia in the high mountain passes where food is scarce, the migrating Abequa reach a valley where flora is lush and fauna is unimaginably plentiful.  The sudden surplus almost crumbles the discipline within the tribe, and there is a crisis of leadership.  Only Jebba the Healer can bring back the mighty huaca alive.  Reluctantly, she accepts that it is her Quest to lead her people, for among all of the Eagle tribe, she is best suited for the task.

The Ayuté Have Two Toolmakers.  When Noves, toolmaker of the Ayuté, is killed by a tiger, the tribe looks to his son Novan to fill the role of craftsman, though he has not the skill of his father.  There is a challenge from Faya, even younger than he but no less adept at making weapons in her own particular style.  When the two types of weapons are put to the test, the women of the tribe are far more successful catching fish than are the men, and the balance of power in the tribe begins to shift.

The Cleansing Ritual Of Oparron.  A tribe is being pushed farther out onto a rain-lashed peninsula, where food is scarce and tempers are frayed.  Discipline can no longer be maintained, and some hungry tribesmen secretly hunt for crabs on the seashore, without bothering to share their bounty.  After three people die from shellfish allergy, a phenomenon the Oparron are not equipped to understand, the Great Spirits are there to help.  The eating of crab meat is a rite of passage all must undergo, to determine if one is strong enough to suit the needs of the tribe.  A grisly pyrophiliac cleansing ritual is invented as a purifying rite for the bodies of those slain.  Soon after this, the Oparron advance out across the lowlands and onto the island chain that spans the North Ocean.         

The Pagh Clans

A Timeline of Events in the History of the Pagh Clans

For a full rendering of the game's timeline, start here with the Stone Age, or here for the Bronze Age.

Rounds 1 and 2: The Paleolithic Era
Year Zero:  The Earth Gathering.  The curiosity of the Pagh toward the reason for the earthquake leads them on a quest into the mountains, to learn why the earth moves.  Perhaps the Earth has rising and falling cycles, as do the Sea and the River.

Year 30,000:  The Abequa Enter The Great Valley.   After wandering for millennia in the high mountain passes where food is scarce, the migrating Abequa reach a valley where flora is lush and fauna is unimaginably plentiful.  The sudden surplus almost crumbles the discipline within the tribe, and there is a crisis of leadership.  Only Jebba the Healer can bring back the mighty huaca alive.  Reluctantly, she accepts that it is her Quest to lead her people, for among all of the Eagle tribe, she is best suited for the task.

Year 50,000:  The Hybesh Valley Is Burning.  Two distinct tribes of the Abequa have evolved:  the Ascenders, who are strong climbers, and the Leapers, who appear to be developing the capacity for gliding between the treetops.  The two tribes disagree how to handle the raging forest fires that are consuming their valley — is it their quest to stay and guard the trees, or to follow the herds?  The players elect to send the tribes in both directions at once.

Note:  the intervening years will be filled in as I have time.  Watch this space!  

Round 6:  The Iron Age

Year 105,618:  The Pharaoh Takes A Bride.  The female Matriarch of the Alvian was the first Pharaoh of the Dynasty of Sathad-Zin.  Since the people of Sathad weren't accustomed to being ruled by a woman, she had taken on the illusory appearance of a winged male instead, because that was the custom of the Sathad.  When it came time to produce an heir, she found herself in a pickle:  she would not marry her brother, in the Sathadi style, and she could not marry the brides that the Sathadi families were offering in their custom of bridal exchange.  Alvatheu elected instead to have the child herself. 

Year 106,129:  The Aquiline Republic Is Founded.  The four races of the Great Valley build a government based on the model of the Bronze Empire.

Year 30,000: The Abequa (Pagh) Enter The Great Valley

Previous history

     Year 0: The Pagh go on a quest into the mountains

The Pagh tribe has been exploring the mountains on their quest to see why the Earth moves.  In fact, they've been exploring so very many years that they've forgotten all about the reason they came here; all the remember is a vague cultural understanding that life is filled with Quests.  Since the Players chose to reinforce the general notion that every tribe should have a medicine man (or woman), but had refused to characterize the earthquake with fanciful omens back in  Year Zero, now it is tradition for the Abequa to be led by a strong warrior, and magic and mysticism are deprecated.

The tribe, now called Abequa, have come through a high valley, where food has been scarce.  This is a way of life for them, rather than a transitory phase; discipline is strict so that nobody gorges on food or eats more than his share.  All resources are carefully shared.

The leader for the Event in Round 2 is the warrior Bkesh (M), who rules and judges based on strength.  He emphasizes competition, fitness, and survival, largely because their environment is so harsh and unforgiving.  Those who cannot keep up the pace, or hunt their share, are left behind.  The tribe is strong and brave, and they possess good tools, but they treat their magic-born children (those with the GURPS Advantage called Magery) as second-class citizens.  Wizards are tools of the warriors, in essence, especially if they are physically weak.  There is only one mage-talented member of the sparse Abequa tribe, and that is meek Jebba the Healer (F), daughter of the previous medicine woman Ezvat (now deceased).

There is an argument at hand which prompts the summoning of the Great Spirits.  The tribe has long been accustomed to difficult survival in the high valley; it is their way.  Everything changes when Ktope the Hunter (M) returns from a scouting expedition.  Up ahead there is a valley where the trees grow all the way up to the sky, unlike the scraggly windblown twigs in the high altitudes.  Animals are plentiful, he claims, and there is much to eat.  Great beasts, like huge grazing cattle eighteen feet high, roam the river valley.

The tribe is on the verge of starvation and discipline may soon break down.  Ktope promises to lead the tribe to this Valley.  Bkesh sees this as a direct challenge to his leadership; in a land of plenty he will have less control over the people, less need for discipline.  Ktope may be seen as hero or savior for leading the Abequa into this paradise.

In a struggle to maintain control over the tribe, and to prevent its usurpation by Ktope, Bkesh makes an announcement.  "There shall be a feast tonight," he tells his people.  "We shall go on a great hunt.  Let us go prepare!  For this hunt shall be an important test of our hunters.  He who brings back the biggest animal shall be blessed and may have Jebba the Healer as his mate!"

Ktope sees Bkesh trying to solidify his political position, and doesn't allow himself to agree.  "These beasts are gigantic," he warns.  "Any wise hunter knows that you must first study the habits of your game.  You do not slaughter them; you cull the weak and the sick, you learn their ways.  We must be cautious, for this valley may contain great danger!"

What The Players Decided

They didn't like the sound of Bkesh, spotting him right off as an overbearing, dictatorial, controlling, bloodthirsty braggart.  Under Bkesh the cavemen might easily depopulate the valley — one huaca literally had more meat on it than the tribe could eat before it spoiled, and Bkesh was proposing a wasteful killing competition.  Not that they were pleased with Ktope, under whose guidance and pathological caution the old ways of starvation, conservation, and discipline would probably continue.

Wasn't there a middle ground? they wondered.  And can't we do something about Jebba?

Solving both problems at once seemed like a natural to them, considering how much they were probably still stinging from the mistake of overly de-emphasizing religion in Year Zero.  But before they arrived at that solution, they marched straight to the weaselly middle ground between the two viewpoints and set up camp* there.

"Can we teach them to preserve the meat?" asked Joe the Leader.

What with? I asked.  The Great Valley is warm and dry; it gets almost no rainfall.  The only water comes from fog, and from a massive river running through the valley.  If they remained in the mountains they could use ice, or deep cold caves.

"What about salt?" he asked.

They're nowhere near the sea, so they can't set up evaporation pans, I pointed out.  And unless you're going to get a starving tribe to mine for salt...

Salt preservation was out.  How about magic? you ask.  Well you may ask, but as I recall, it never occurred to the players to ask.  It never came up, just as they didn't ask about curing meats with smoke.  Perhaps magic was on their minds, because they started to dwell on poor second-class Jebba the Healer, medicine woman and also apparently chattel to be given away to the mightiest warrior.

"Did Bkesh say that the contest was only between himself and Ktope?" asked Dave craftily.  "Could we make someone else the leader?  Is there a toolmaker, for instance?"

There was a toolmaker for the tribe, I admitted.  He hadn't been central to the political power struggle between Bkesh and Ktope, so I hadn't invented him specifically, nor given him a name, but I assumed there must have been one.

"Now, do I still remember how to make a cage from the last time?" Dave the Artisan asked, referring to the animals they had trapped for the Drim in Year 30K. 

Sure, I said.

"Okay, so what we do is this," Dave said, and explained the plan.  They would hold the hunting competition for all the tribe, with one twist:  they had to capture a huaca alive.  The winner would be leader and, to change the terms of the competition somewhat, could chose for a mate anyone in the tribe.

It's a deal, said the tribe.  They were eager for the hunt and for the feast to follow.

Unknown to the tribe, the Players had already gone out to find a huaca and had fenced it in between some trees.  They waited for the hunt to begin, passing the time by casting Beast Soother on their captured beast.  Eventually, Dave returned with Jebba in tow.  They taught her the Beast-Soother spell and told her it had all been arranged.  Jebba would return with her animal and she'd be named leader.  That's when the Players hit the first snag in their plan:  they'd never asked Jebba if she wanted to be leader.

"I'm just a medicine woman," she said.  "I'm not important enough to be leader."

"But," said Joe the Leader, "but ... you have to.  It's for the good of the tribe.  Only you can bring back this animal alive.  If you don't, there will be no feast."

"Well, okay," she said reluctantly.  "If I must.  But I won't be very good at it."

Result

They brought Jebba and the huaca back in triumph.  Jebba was named leader and had her choice of mates.  The Eagle Clan of Abequa had their feast, and the rights of mage-born children had been restored.

That's when the Players realized the second snag in their grand plan.  They'd also never asked Jebba whether she preferred either Bkesh or Ktope's plans.  They'd just rigged a contest to install as leader a woman they knew nothing about...

*During that round it was only a camp.  By now, of course, Dave the Artisan owns five-star accommodations, by reservation, operating under the name Weaselly Middle Ground LLC.

Year 0: The Earth Gathering (Dar, Uman, Pagh, Kufu, Brun)

Welcome to the Paleolithic Era.  As you can see, we're in the middle of an Ice Age; some of the continents are being encroached upon by massive sheets of polar ice.  The map above is an elevation map; it doesn't depict forests, deserts, plains, or other environmental features, because after all, a hundred thousand years is quite a long time.  I didn't feel up to the task of redrawing the map, re-coursing every river, or rearranging every landform feature throughout the Paleolithic, so we'll just use this single elevation map as a shorthand.  I'll describe the features of the environment as we go, if they're essential to the plot.

When we begin the game, the tribes of proto-humans aren't very numerous yet, nor have they spread very far (see the red shaded area on the western edge of the central ocean.  They're all in one convenient place so they can all share distant elements of a common mythology, however fragmented it might be.

The hominid tribes are having their Earth Gathering.  All the tribes are gathered together to share lore and medicine.  The Players are present as four wandering tribeless hunters, who have been invited into the Gathering to participate and share in the hunts and feasts and stories.  As yet, the Players are not yet Great Spirits or demigods.

During the festivities, there is a massive earthquake and the cave of the host tribe collapses.  They have nowhere to live, and both their leader and medicine man has died.  Now the tribes are lost and confused.  What caused the earth to shake?  What have the tribes done?  How can they atone?  There is some understandable concern among the primitive people.

The mood is worsened after only a day of mourning, for there is a terrible omen:  the moon is swallowed up in darkness.  It is a partial lunar eclipse.

The Dar Tribe.  Formerly led by Dar (M), who is now dead, and Shan the Medicine Man (M), who is also dead.  The Dar tribe once was the largest, with about 48 members, and now they are third at about 37.  The Clan of the Serpent believes firmly that the earthquake and moon are bad omens.  As the host tribe, they were punished for the misdeeds of one of the visitors, and they demand to know which tribe caused it.  Mala (F), the tribal midwife (and the late Shan’s widow) thinks it was because of the deformed child of the Uman, who came from the mountains to the northwest.  She wants to see the Uman clan punished.

The Uman Tribe.  Led by Uman the Hunter and Nib the Medicine Woman.  The Uman were and are the smallest tribe at 20 people.  The Clan of the Fox has seen the earth move before in the mountains, which causes avalanches of rocks and snow.  They do not believe this earthquake is because of Uman’s deformed son (who has six fingers and toes).  The reassurance of the Uman does not allay the fears of the Dar, who see it as a sign that the Uman brought the earthquake with them.  But the Uman respond that the earthquake was sent to punish Dar and Shan:  everyone saw that Shan did not follow the Old Ways in the Earth Ceremony, and Shan has paid!  They also see this as a warning to the Kufu tribe, who have no medicine man to guide them.  Uman and Nib strongly believe somebody should punish the Kufu for having no medicine man, but they are not large enough to do it, and the Pagh, who are, will not.

The Pagh Tribe.  Led by Pagh the Warrior (M), who has both Zifa the Medicine Woman (F) and Tor the Sage (M, wizard).  They were the second-largest tribe at 44 people, and now they are the largest.  The Clan of the Eagle believe there is no sign.  The Pagh come from the southeast, and have watched the rivers and the tides.  Sometimes the rivers go up, and sometimes the tides go out, but they always come back.  Perhaps the Earth rises and falls, too.  The Pagh see this instead as a quest, which the tribes must take up:  we must go to the mountains to see why the Earth shakes.  The Uman and Brun say this is foolish, because there isn’t enough food for everyone in the mountains.

The Kufu Tribe.  Led by Kufu the Toolmaker (M), who has at his side Gom the Skinner (M).  They were the third-largest tribe, with 39 people, and now they are second, but they have many who are sick and injured, with scars from hunting.  The Clan of the Tiger comes from the south.  They believe the earthquake is a sign that the People can no longer meet here, and must go their ways to atone.  They are all equally to blame.

The Brun Tribe.  Led by Brun the Shaman (M), who is backed up by Hon the Strong (M).  They are the second-smallest tribe, with only 28 members.  The Clan of the Mammoth come from the north, and they watch the stars and the moon.  They dismiss the earthquake but they are troubled by the eclipse of the moon, which tells them that there will be a terrible winter.  The Kufu object because they don’t really know seasons, as they come from tropical lands.

Usually, at a time like this, all the medicine men would gather and discuss it, but because Shan is dead, and the Kufu have none, they have not enough shamen to perform their rituals.  Instead, they turn instead to the Players to solve their problems.

"Why did the earthquake destroy the cave of Dar, mighty Spirits?" they ask.  "Are the Uman to blame, for bringing the deformed child here to this place?  Shall they be punished for their offense?"

Others say, "Mighty Spirits, should we punish the clan of Kufu for not having a medicine man?  They are not following the old rituals."

The Pagh tribe says, "We are going on a quest into the mountains to see why the earth moves.  What shall we tell the Earth Spirit that it will appease her?"

And the Brun, of course, are worried about the upcoming winter, which they fear will be terrible.  How will they survive?

What The Players Decided

Unsurprisingly, they first decided that the six-fingered child of Uman should survive.  Their twenty-first century knowledge told them that six fingers on a child is a harmless birth defect.  Convincing a bunch of 100th-millennium-BC tribesmen of this took some doing, however.  Connor the Mystic (who was in charge of religion, philosophy, medicine, and so on) invented a phony-baloney ceremony for the purpose of "driving away evil spirits," he told them, and assured the medicine men of the clans that the Old Ways were nothing special.  Go ahead, use your power, improvise! he exhorted them.  At the end of his make-up ritual, he pretended to read the fortune of the six-fingered child, and pronounced that the boy would become a mighty leader and a wizard, to seal his survival.

They also pooh-poohed any mystical significance to the collapse of the cave and the earthquake.  Even when pressed they refused to concede there was any Sign to be read.  Dave the Artisan (our Mr Spock hard-sciences character) simply advised the toolmakers of the tribes how to reinforce the insides of caves with some stout trees.  He then crafted toys for the children.  ("Putting trees indoors, and giving toys to children.  What are you, Santa Claus?" asked the Joe the Leader.)

Last, Joe the Leader arranged a bridal exchange between the tribes of Uman and Dar — Dar's clan would send the six-fingered child a woman to be his bride, when he was of age.  This, Joe the Leader hoped, would smooth over any animosity between the clans about the strange child they had saved.

Results 
I decided that since the players had saved the child and emphasized the importance of saving lives, it would show the Kufu clan the importance of medicine.

Also, the players had terribly snubbed the clan of Dar:  first, they did not avenge the death of Dar or his shaman Shan; second, they had had the affront to declare that the Old Ways were nonsense; third, they had forced the bridal exchange upon them.  Because of all this, and the outright dismissal of the mystic significance of the earthquake, Mala the Dar midwife snapped and attacked Nib of the Uman.  Uman was forced to kill Mala, leaving Dar without any medicine woman.

Since Connor the Mystic had suggested that the Old Ways weren't important, I ruled that Brun would step down and hand the clan's leadership over to his warrior Hon the Strong.  But they'd also strongly recommended that the Kufu have a medicine man, which influences Pagh to turn control of his tribe over to Zifa, his second.

Not that it would much matter whether one individual or another would lead the clan in the short term.  I wanted to see which direction each clan might be pushed, which developments would be emphasized for the foreseeable future, because this would be the last time all five tribes would be in the same place for a while.

After the Earth Meeting, the clans all went their separate ways.