Ages of the Old Ones Quest (Civilization Building/Call of Cthulhu)

You are sobbing quietly. The body of your father is lying in front of you. You are his only daughter and he was the closest person to you. His death was not exactly a surprise, he was dying for many days, but it only made your grief stronger. Feeling of loss is debilitating. There is nothing you can focus on despite knowing that you have to. You cannot help but return to recalling your father's warm face and all you know about him.

They called him Wolf. It was told that he got this name thanks to his savagery. That he was like a wolf, hunting tirelessly until his prey fallen dead. He knew no fear. There is one story you heard more time than you can count. It tells about his fight with a pack of wolves. After a long stalking, he, along with several other hunters, managed to kill big game – a deer. When they were preparing to take it back, a pack of wolves appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, they had found the same prey. Both wolves and humans were hungry, so no side was willing to give up. Smell of blood sipping from the dead deer must have energized the wolves, because they finally pounced on humans. Rest of the hunters fell back, but your father though better of it. He jumped right in the middle of the wolves, killing the alpha male with a single thrust of his spear. This made reaming wolves scatter and humans won their prize.

Killing a wolf is no small feat. This has given your father his nickname, you are sure. The fact that he kept on wearing pelt from the wolf he had slain probably added to it. But you know your father was no reckless brute. In fact, he was actually calculating and composed. His behavior was a matter of his care for your family. He did not want his brethren to starve. He did not want you to starve. You can imagine him charging at the wolves with your disappointed expression as an alternative. He might have thought that he could not return from the hunt empty handed, leaving you hungry. Tears gather in your eyes again.

There are also stories your mother told you. She is one of the Mountain People, who joined your family back when you still talked with each other. When you were little, you listened to her praising your brave father, how he was the one to seal demonic hole, something that your mother had no right to witness. Unfortunately, as time progressed and your people committed more and more atrocities against mountain people, their relations deteriorated. She was reluctant to allow taking not only belongings, but also lives of her old brethren. In the end she barely talked to your father, preferring solitary time.

Right now you could see that her eyes were wet, so there must have still been something between them. Your father might have been cruel at times, but save for several episodes he was a kind person. Additionally, who speaks badly of a dead man?

It were circumstances that forced him to be like this, not his own nature. In here only strong have the right to survive, so your father decided to be the strongest. As always with him, it was probably conscious decision, not just blindly following instincts.

You father was wounded by one of the Mountain people, in a short clash that you have with them from time to time. His injury was not serious, but his wound started to decay after several days. There was nothing you could do. His condition deteriorated, he spend his last day raving incomprehensibly in a fever. You are not even sure if he heard the last goodbye you said to him.

You slowly returns to reality. You have to distribute your father's belongings between yourselves, and do something about his body. You usually live corpses for animals to feed upon, so they can return to nature, but right now you cannot move away. You need time to recuperate, there are still wounded among you. There is too many predators around. I will not be healthy to lure them closer. You can place his body in a cavity and cover with stones, you guess.

As for his equipment, you need to decide what to take for yourself. Everyone probably expect you to take his wolf teeth necklace, it is beautiful piece of work created by your mother. But you are definitely not doing that! You have to move forward with your life and it is you who will decide what way to take. Your name is Little Willow. It yours, not theirs. No one is going to dictate your choice.

You could take father's spear. You will be hunting and fighting as he did. You will train to match his skills and be the strongest, as he was. You will also take your own wife, not the other way around!

You could take father's wolf pelt. He was Wolf, you will take a new name, She-wolf. You will forge your path alone. You will inherit his willpower and bravery, moving forward no matter what.

You could take a lock of his hair. It will be reminding you of how he cared for you and lend you his wisdom. You will similarly care for your family and ensure its future, maybe marring of to your cousin or your brother if it proves beneficial for all of you.

What do you take from your father? How do you take after him?
[] Take the spear.
[] Take the pelt.
[] Take the hair.
[] Take you very own way. Write-in.


While the young girl is pondering her own future, rest of the Listeners debates wider context. You are still hard pressed for food. It is not that dire yet, but there are voices that it will inevitably become a problem. Other say that you are just not used to the mountain environment, you lack skills necessary to make the most of it. With time you will be better here than anywhere you were before.

Listeners are now cut off from the world – local hunters do not share any news with you. Even more, you are in a state of open war. Series of insolent raids you performed over the years on unprepared, occasionally killing women and children, turned them hostile. They are becoming more and more aggressive, but also more careful. Now, there is no one around willing for any contact. Your girls have no one wooing them and your boys cannot look for wives. It makes your population unbalanced, as more and more men die fighting hostile mountaineers and wild animals.

How do you improve your situation?
[] Scout nearby region. Maybe if we travel further, we will meet friendly groups. With most mountain people escaping into higher terrain we could try looking into another direction. We could expand our hunting grounds, going for most lucrative game and find safe passages to move around. It will surely leave us vulnerable to enemy raids though.
[] Stay where you are. It is not that there is less food here, it is just more difficult to gather. We can find our place in this ecosystem and adapt to it. If we can learn how wildlife operates around here we can probably gather way more food than we need. If we show local population that we are no longer a threat they might consider establishing friendly relationships again.
[] Push further into the mountains. After we pressed People of the Mountains, they fallen back to the high mountains. We cannot allow them to unite and take revenge on us. Time to strike is now, while we are still strong. It will ensure that we have this hunting grounds for ourselves and can recuperate later in peace.
[] Migrate. There is nothing here for us anymore. We looted easy targets, now we should go back. Maybe food become plentiful in the area we came from while we were not there.
[] Propose different solution. Write-in.

The War was long and bloody, but in the end you managed to sniff out all significant groups of mountain men. You pursued them mercilessly, killing as many as you could. All, who managed to stay alive escaped so far away that you have not heard of them since, or died hidden in their holes. It took years of hard work. You lived in constant tension, wearing down your enemies as much as your own people. But it was your attitude that preserved and proven stronger. Your first genocide done, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Mountains are yours. Now the only thing left is to decide what do with them.

Your population took a hit during the wartime, but it was somehow mitigated thanks to several factors. Firstly, usual separation of branch families did not occur. During more peaceful times it was common for a new family to form and walk its own way. When a grandmother, or a more resolute father decided that it was too stuffed for them among rest of you, they just took their children and created new family. But in an environment where small groups could be easily picked out and killed by an enemy, separating was never an option. In a way, it was your strategy of keeping together, instead of scattering around that let you overwhelm the mountain people so easily. You are thankful that they never thought of doing the same in time.

Secondly, sudden eagerness of women to fight alongside men provided you with even more forces, allowing easier victories and lessening burden on hunters to provide food in the meantime. These female warrior followed example of Little Willow, grabbing spears and learning how to use them in practice. Albeit not numerous, their help was substantial.

You achieved peace. Its cost does not concern you, because it was not yours to pay. It had to be done one way or another. Spirits of your people are high, you wish to celebrate your victory, but you are not sure if you should. In the end, was it a mean or a purpose?

You defeated previous inhabitants of your land. You are free from the neighbor threat, but what now?
Possible community actions (more unlocked at higher levels of aspects):
[] Stay in place.
- [] Recover slowly, but steadily.
- [] [Special] Celebrate. What better occasion to do it we could possibly find? (cost 1 Resources)
[] [Hunting the weak] Spread your people around. Go as far as possible looking for new targets to loot. (cost 1 Population)
[] Migrate.
- [] [They can be beaten] Go higher into the mountains. Harden your bodies and souls there. (+10% success chance for third decision.)
- [] [Hunting the weak] Just go until you find a new target to loot. Highlands were never a good place to live in.

Generation passes, society changes. In what direction did you take your community with your actions?
[] Choose one aspect.


You are training alone on the outskirt of a camp, facing in the opposite direction. You have already mastered the spear, but there is no other thing than training that you feel like doing. High mountains extend through your whole field of vision. You call them 'Fangs of the Sky'. When you look at them, looming on the horizon, they appear as if the fierce sky sharpened its fangs and ripped parts of the land.

You can hear them calling you. You never shared this with anyone, at least not directly, but there is something in these mountains that makes them irresistible. You have spent many years searching for what it might be, going further and further into their grasp. You walked until you spent your food completely, you walked until your breath no longer provided you with air, you walked with strength barely left to lift your legs, you walked in freezing cold, no longer feeling your toes. In the end, it was calling of a reason that won all the time. You had to go back or you would have died.

You are Listeners. Why do you even call yourself that? No one beside you appears to listen to anything different from his own barking. Is it a sin that you can listen? Is it bad that you want to? You spent your life becoming the strongest. You beat all the enemies that you have found, be it humans or wild animals, but you are still not strong enough to beat these mountains.
As long as you had human enemies to point your spear at, you knew what to do. Pointing your spear at the mountains is overwhelming. You cannot imagine possible victory. But you wish to win. You have killed several dozen of Mountain Men, always emerging stronger and stronger. During your fights you have always felt a thrill, a desire to prove that you are better than your enemy. This time, it is different. You cannot prove yourself stronger than the mountains. You just wish to win, to pass them and answer your calling.

There are other girls like you, who decided to grab spears in a manner of men. They are dedicated, just like you are, but you suppose their motivation is different. They appear to care for achievements earned with their skills, not for the skill itself. You cannot understand them, but you can train them. It is enough. Maybe if you presented mountains as your ultimate enemy, they will be willing to help you. It is somehow embarrassing, to show your weakness like that, but they will understand. Together you will have it much easier to travel into uncharted territory.

You could also announce your plan to traverse into the mountains to everyone. They own you, so they will surely help. They might think of you as crazy, but what of it? They probably already think you are crazy, with all your behavior during the war. You are the strongest together, not as individuals, so it appears to be the best course of action. You are just a little bit afraid of endangering more people than necessary.

How do you answer your calling?
[] Go alone. This time you will make it. (Very hard 10% +1% bonus, 11% success)
[] Tell your spear-sisters and ask them to go together. They will ease your burden. (Hard 30% +1% bonus, 31% success)
[] Tell your whole family, take supplies and anyone willing to tag along on your mad expedition. (Normal 50% success)
[] Do not go. You already tried and it proven impossible.