Shadows of the Past
- Thread starter Azel
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
- Location
- Germany
Certainly. You will get some herbal lore out of helping him and can badger him on whatever else you want.
Not quite the same as seeing spirits in person, but her knows a lot of stories about them.
That's all but assured to happen.
Prologue 2: The First Adventure
- Location
- Germany
While he always seemed calm and easy-going, you are quickly discovering a quite different side of Mahuizoh the shaman on your way. As you had guessed, there's a distinct shortage of people helping him today. Aside from you, only Atl, a boy two years your senior, is there to help him and only a lone huntress is guiding your way and standing guard. The poor woman seems rather put off by the loudness of your little trek, but Mahuizoh insists on cramming as much knowledge as possible into you two before you reach the ruins.
He prattles down an endless list of plants and how they look before switching to descriptions of frogs and which ones you shouldn't touch. Just as you have already forgotten about most of the plants again, he switches back and needles you with questions. It's rather embarrassing to see his pitying look whenever you get a question wrong, but at least he never appears angry at your inability to tell the bark of different Sapote trees apart when you have never seen one before. At least not at you. He isn't shy about his displeasure at having to go out with such a tiny group just because the chieftain wants to leave in a hurry. It seems Mahuizoh had recommended to move on a while ago already, but was rebuffed multiple times.
In the end though, it's all worth it. You have seen your fair share of ruins on the marches between camp sites, but the clearing you reach after three hours of walking is far beyond what you imagined.
At first it's just a few overgrown foundations and a stone path that has become more uneven then the jungle floor with all the tree roots breaching through its cracks, but as if you've crossed an invisible boundary, the trees just stop growing at some point. A little while longer you walk among shattered houses and even Mahuizoh keeps quite while you wonder at the whole city you have wandered into. Their roofs caved in long ago and the remaining walls covered in moss and lichen. A few times you try to take a peek into the empty interiors, but can spot nothing but ferns and rubble within them before you are called by the huntress to keep up and not to dawdle.
At last you reach a large pile of rubble, which apparently was a once a very tall and impressive building judging by the broken wall two men in height that it leans against. Mahuizoh waves the huntress to stop for a moment before taking a few steps up the pile and waving to Atl and you. "Come on, children. I want you to have a good look at this." You don't wait a second at that request and rush up the broken stones, Atl following right behind you, and from the top of it you look over the field of ruins before you.
Broken houses as far as the eye can see. You can only faintly spot the other end of the field where the jungle begins again, and in between there is so much. It's hard to comprehend just how many people must have lived here once. If everyone in your tribe had a score of houses for himself, you still wouldn't even use a fraction of this place. And in between, there are so many even bigger houses, even if they are half collapsed. Mansions they were called, you dimly recall, and even of those there are enough for every single member of the tribe to have one all for himself. Lastly, your eyes linger on the greatest of them all—a great building with many tiers and stories rises in the center of the ruins. Before it stands a great, quadratic pillar of stone with a faintly shimmering and gleaming tip.
You wonder what this place must have looked liked in the past, when Mahuizoh finally reaches the top of the rubble pile behind you and lays a hand on Atl and your shoulders each. "It is quite different to see it for yourself, isn't it? Not all tall tales by old men. Look as long as you like, but don't wander off. We will take a break before starting to gather the plants."
You nod absentmindedly as he points to a broken wall there huntress is already sitting on while rummaging in her pack. Stories are what you came for on this trip, but as you drink in the view from your vantage point, you silently decide that this alone was worth it.
Nonetheless, after a while longer, you creep back down the broken stones, leaving Atl up there alone for a while. Mahuizoh had sat down in some distance to the huntress and was eating a few dried fruit from his pack as you sat down next to him.
"Something you wanted to ask me Yaxkin?" He grins broadly as you look at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I know quite well that a young girl isn't asking to pluck herbs for me without a reason. Not the ruins that you wanted to see, then?"
"That too, but... You are always so busy. I thought, you would maybe tell me a bit about the spirits and the world?"
"If that isn't a pleasant surprise." He offers you some fruit which you eagerly take while nodding towards the place where the huntress is sitting. Apparently Atl joined her and tries to ask her questions too, but is utterly ignored by her. "It's rare these days for young folk to ask me about such things. They always want to hear the boasting of the hunters about how big a sow they got and how many men high that jaguar was they escaped so narrowly. Well then. What question drove you to me?"
"What are the spirits? Where do they come from and why do they want offerings from us?"
"Not the easy questions then. What they are, I think no man can truly say. I can only tell you what they are made from and that, my girl, is magic. The power that once made our forefathers great is not something foreign to them, but their very flesh and blood. Strange powers do they wield without any effort. Some can become one with the shadows around them as easily as if they stepped through a tent flap. Others crawl though the earth and stone like fishes in the water. It's only right and just that we make offerings to them. Much ill they could bring down on us if they feel slighted by our presence in their lands, so they always get their fair share of what we take. It would be folly to fight the spirits, for they ask for little and there is no victory against them. I've seen the young and brash strike them with knifes and arrows, but they all shattered like a clay urn upon striking their skin. Peace with them has served us well for as long as I can remember and it will still serve us well when you have grown into a old crone like me."
You mull over this for a bit as you chew on the fruits and some smoked meat from your own pack. If your forefathers could do the same? Swimming through the earth sure sounded strange, but maybe it was just as fun as in the water? It was probably a lot harder to see something though. "My mother sometimes told me of the dead walking. Is that something that spirits do? And why would they?" At this Mahuizoh sighs and looks into the distance for a bit. "What can I say? My life I dedicated to understand the spirits, but their ways are still strange to me to this day. I think they punish us for our bad deeds by doing these things."
He shakes his head with a sigh. "A long time ago, I've met a traveler. He had walked all the way from the sea through Cualli and seen many things. He told me of the greatest city. Far greater then this here. It was once the biggest and most important city in these lands. But now only the dead walk there. Twisted bones that walk of their own accord. All sharp teeth and claws, cobbled together from a dozen men. Of a great beast he spoke, like a centipede, but so large that it could look above the trees themselves and it too was made of nothing but broken bones fused together into this shape. They all wander the empty city to this day and nobody knows why or for what purpose. Like beasts they fall upon all who dare to approach the city, to add their bones to their endless number."
You grow quite at his words. Some part of you is afraid at the mere mention of these things, yet another stumbles about how outlandish it sounds. Then again, had some described the place you sit now to you, it would have sounded no less outlandish. What truly startles you though are his next words. "Maybe a young mind can find an answer where a old man set in his ways can not. What do you think is their reason for doing these things?"
Truth be told, you never really thought about this. Why do spirits do what they do?
[] [Reasoning] Write-In
After you give your answer, Mahuizoh just smiles and nods before rising. "Maybe I will show you something once we are done with our work. There are more things here to see then old stones and men." He gives no indication that your answer was either right or wrong like on the way here when he asked about the plants, and you honestly don't know what he thinks about it. Maybe it's just important to have an answer for yourself.
What will you do while working for Mahuizoh?
[] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
[] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
-[] [Work] Go into the large palace at the center of the city.
-[] [Work] Write-In
AN: And this marks your first trip away from the safety of your home. Mahuizoh was rather distracting while you walked through the jungle, so you didn't really have the attention to spare to your surroundings.
If you got any more questions or more specific ones for him, feel free to ask and I will answer them in the thread.
He prattles down an endless list of plants and how they look before switching to descriptions of frogs and which ones you shouldn't touch. Just as you have already forgotten about most of the plants again, he switches back and needles you with questions. It's rather embarrassing to see his pitying look whenever you get a question wrong, but at least he never appears angry at your inability to tell the bark of different Sapote trees apart when you have never seen one before. At least not at you. He isn't shy about his displeasure at having to go out with such a tiny group just because the chieftain wants to leave in a hurry. It seems Mahuizoh had recommended to move on a while ago already, but was rebuffed multiple times.
In the end though, it's all worth it. You have seen your fair share of ruins on the marches between camp sites, but the clearing you reach after three hours of walking is far beyond what you imagined.
At first it's just a few overgrown foundations and a stone path that has become more uneven then the jungle floor with all the tree roots breaching through its cracks, but as if you've crossed an invisible boundary, the trees just stop growing at some point. A little while longer you walk among shattered houses and even Mahuizoh keeps quite while you wonder at the whole city you have wandered into. Their roofs caved in long ago and the remaining walls covered in moss and lichen. A few times you try to take a peek into the empty interiors, but can spot nothing but ferns and rubble within them before you are called by the huntress to keep up and not to dawdle.
At last you reach a large pile of rubble, which apparently was a once a very tall and impressive building judging by the broken wall two men in height that it leans against. Mahuizoh waves the huntress to stop for a moment before taking a few steps up the pile and waving to Atl and you. "Come on, children. I want you to have a good look at this." You don't wait a second at that request and rush up the broken stones, Atl following right behind you, and from the top of it you look over the field of ruins before you.
Broken houses as far as the eye can see. You can only faintly spot the other end of the field where the jungle begins again, and in between there is so much. It's hard to comprehend just how many people must have lived here once. If everyone in your tribe had a score of houses for himself, you still wouldn't even use a fraction of this place. And in between, there are so many even bigger houses, even if they are half collapsed. Mansions they were called, you dimly recall, and even of those there are enough for every single member of the tribe to have one all for himself. Lastly, your eyes linger on the greatest of them all—a great building with many tiers and stories rises in the center of the ruins. Before it stands a great, quadratic pillar of stone with a faintly shimmering and gleaming tip.
You wonder what this place must have looked liked in the past, when Mahuizoh finally reaches the top of the rubble pile behind you and lays a hand on Atl and your shoulders each. "It is quite different to see it for yourself, isn't it? Not all tall tales by old men. Look as long as you like, but don't wander off. We will take a break before starting to gather the plants."
You nod absentmindedly as he points to a broken wall there huntress is already sitting on while rummaging in her pack. Stories are what you came for on this trip, but as you drink in the view from your vantage point, you silently decide that this alone was worth it.
Nonetheless, after a while longer, you creep back down the broken stones, leaving Atl up there alone for a while. Mahuizoh had sat down in some distance to the huntress and was eating a few dried fruit from his pack as you sat down next to him.
"Something you wanted to ask me Yaxkin?" He grins broadly as you look at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I know quite well that a young girl isn't asking to pluck herbs for me without a reason. Not the ruins that you wanted to see, then?"
"That too, but... You are always so busy. I thought, you would maybe tell me a bit about the spirits and the world?"
"If that isn't a pleasant surprise." He offers you some fruit which you eagerly take while nodding towards the place where the huntress is sitting. Apparently Atl joined her and tries to ask her questions too, but is utterly ignored by her. "It's rare these days for young folk to ask me about such things. They always want to hear the boasting of the hunters about how big a sow they got and how many men high that jaguar was they escaped so narrowly. Well then. What question drove you to me?"
"What are the spirits? Where do they come from and why do they want offerings from us?"
"Not the easy questions then. What they are, I think no man can truly say. I can only tell you what they are made from and that, my girl, is magic. The power that once made our forefathers great is not something foreign to them, but their very flesh and blood. Strange powers do they wield without any effort. Some can become one with the shadows around them as easily as if they stepped through a tent flap. Others crawl though the earth and stone like fishes in the water. It's only right and just that we make offerings to them. Much ill they could bring down on us if they feel slighted by our presence in their lands, so they always get their fair share of what we take. It would be folly to fight the spirits, for they ask for little and there is no victory against them. I've seen the young and brash strike them with knifes and arrows, but they all shattered like a clay urn upon striking their skin. Peace with them has served us well for as long as I can remember and it will still serve us well when you have grown into a old crone like me."
You mull over this for a bit as you chew on the fruits and some smoked meat from your own pack. If your forefathers could do the same? Swimming through the earth sure sounded strange, but maybe it was just as fun as in the water? It was probably a lot harder to see something though. "My mother sometimes told me of the dead walking. Is that something that spirits do? And why would they?" At this Mahuizoh sighs and looks into the distance for a bit. "What can I say? My life I dedicated to understand the spirits, but their ways are still strange to me to this day. I think they punish us for our bad deeds by doing these things."
He shakes his head with a sigh. "A long time ago, I've met a traveler. He had walked all the way from the sea through Cualli and seen many things. He told me of the greatest city. Far greater then this here. It was once the biggest and most important city in these lands. But now only the dead walk there. Twisted bones that walk of their own accord. All sharp teeth and claws, cobbled together from a dozen men. Of a great beast he spoke, like a centipede, but so large that it could look above the trees themselves and it too was made of nothing but broken bones fused together into this shape. They all wander the empty city to this day and nobody knows why or for what purpose. Like beasts they fall upon all who dare to approach the city, to add their bones to their endless number."
You grow quite at his words. Some part of you is afraid at the mere mention of these things, yet another stumbles about how outlandish it sounds. Then again, had some described the place you sit now to you, it would have sounded no less outlandish. What truly startles you though are his next words. "Maybe a young mind can find an answer where a old man set in his ways can not. What do you think is their reason for doing these things?"
Truth be told, you never really thought about this. Why do spirits do what they do?
[] [Reasoning] Write-In
After you give your answer, Mahuizoh just smiles and nods before rising. "Maybe I will show you something once we are done with our work. There are more things here to see then old stones and men." He gives no indication that your answer was either right or wrong like on the way here when he asked about the plants, and you honestly don't know what he thinks about it. Maybe it's just important to have an answer for yourself.
What will you do while working for Mahuizoh?
[] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
[] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
-[] [Work] Go into the large palace at the center of the city.
-[] [Work] Write-In
AN: And this marks your first trip away from the safety of your home. Mahuizoh was rather distracting while you walked through the jungle, so you didn't really have the attention to spare to your surroundings.
If you got any more questions or more specific ones for him, feel free to ask and I will answer them in the thread.
- Location
- United States
[X] [Reasoning] "I believe that some spirits are righteously angry for crimes committed against them, but they can't all be like that, and not all for the same reason. I believe it's dangerous to assume when there's so much we don't know, and that it's important to show proper respect and reverence to the spirits, but I still have a suspicion that too much has been lost as the ancient legends have been passed down. There could very well be other reasons the spirits do such terrible things, reasons that we have yet to relearn. After all, there are conflicting legends about the spirits and the past, each with at least a kernel of truth."
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
Baby steps. I want to dungeon delve, but as far as I can tell @Azel has given us no skills yet, so going straight for the big prize like the palace seems like a death sentence. I am happy, though, that it's all but confirmed we're basically going to become Lara Croft here. Maybe with the benefit of reclaiming old knowledge for the good of our people and finding out exactly why the empire fell.
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
Baby steps. I want to dungeon delve, but as far as I can tell @Azel has given us no skills yet, so going straight for the big prize like the palace seems like a death sentence. I am happy, though, that it's all but confirmed we're basically going to become Lara Croft here.
Maybe with the benefit of reclaiming old knowledge for the good of our people and finding out exactly why the empire fell.
- Location
- Germany
You actually have stats and skills already, but they have little impact for now. I'm running this mostly on narration for now and won't reveal the stat-sheet until the prologue is done to prevent needles point-counting or being overly worried about the mechanically best choices.Baby steps. I want to dungeon delve, but as far as I can tell @Azel has given us no skills yet, so going straight for the big prize like the palace seems like a death sentence. I am happy, though, that it's all but confirmed we're basically going to become Lara Croft here.
None the less, risky behaviour can have negative repercussions. If you go exploring, I will roll for what you find.
Had you gone to the offering, you could have gotten into quite serious trouble.
- Location
- United States
*wince* I can definitely see that. Especially with our "Know the Spirits" trait, any sign of disrespect would have brought dire punishments.
But yeah, I'm assuming that the riskiest option of all is the palace? And also that the riskier the behavior the greater the potential rewards?
One more thing, @Azel, does our tribe have any kind of taboo on finding and using treasures of the past?
- Location
- Germany
- Oh, don't worry. Your tribe would have been the least of your problems, had you offended that spirit.
- Maybe, maybe not. It's definitely farther away then the next few mansions.
- Nope. A few of your hunters even have heirloom knives made out of bronze and steel parts they found in the ruins. It's just old stuff to them.
- Location
- United States
- Location
- florida
[X] [Reasoning] "I believe that some spirits are righteously angry for crimes committed against them, but they can't all be like that, and not all for the same reason. I believe it's dangerous to assume when there's so much we don't know, and that it's important to show proper respect and reverence to the spirits, but I still have a suspicion that too much has been lost as the ancient legends have been passed down. There could very well be other reasons the spirits do such terrible things, reasons that we have yet to relearn. After all, there are conflicting legends about the spirits and the past, each with at least a kernel of truth."
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
@Duesal No where to go but up.
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
@Duesal No where to go but up.
- Location
- United States
Very true, but it really is sad just how much has been lost. Freaking metallurgy of all things.
[X] [Reasoning] The spirits sound like they are acting like hunters without a chief. The hunters will keep hunting even if there's nothing to catch if the chief doesn't tell them to stop and move on, so if these spirits only know how to move bones, then they might move bones even when there is no body around the bones and they keep looking for more bones to move even if they already have enough. Are there spirits inside people too?
[X] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
Remember the herbs are needed, we're shorthanded because nobody listened to shaman and in a bit of a hurry before the tribe moves.
[X] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
Remember the herbs are needed, we're shorthanded because nobody listened to shaman and in a bit of a hurry before the tribe moves.
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- Location
- Germany
Not quite. You know that traders sometimes deal with metal goods, but they are insanely expensive and your tribe isn't that well off.Wait. @Azel. Metalworking is a lost art?
Some larger settlements can apparently make bronze, but the moist climate corrodes it pretty fast without good maintenance. Iron is basically useless, since you can watch it rust away in front of you.
Old Cualli stuff doesn't have this issue for some reason, as you can see from people still finding useful weapons a few centuries after the fall, but reforging it often degrades the quality quite noticeably. So you end up with hunters having knives made out of old sword shards held together by bone or wood.
Globally, Cualli is back to a stone age level with a few places struggling to maintain enough infrastructure to keep up a bit of bronze age.
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Uh...isn't bronze very corrosion resistant?
- Location
- United States
@Azel, are there any super valuable artifacts we know that our tribe possesses? Like a fully-intact sword or the like? An ancient spear? Shield? Etc?
- Location
- Germany
If you make bronze of good quality, yes, but even then it's rather vulnerable to salt and ammonia. The lack of decent ores is a huge problem for the remaining settlements with bronze production, since the deposits that are easy to reach and of good quality have been depleted centuries if not millenia ago. Thus you end up with a lot of impurities and a wildly varying composition of the final alloy.
Nothing of the sort. Your tribe isn't overly attached to these things and prefers to stay out of dark ruins filled with things trying to eat your face.
- Location
- United States
It was more along the lines of them being useful survival tools far superior of anything they're capable of now. I can easily see things like that being passed down from generation to generation.
But I'll take that as a sign that the tribe has no such treasures.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
[X] [Reasoning] "I believe that some spirits are righteously angry for crimes committed against them, but they can't all be like that, and not all for the same reason. I believe it's dangerous to assume when there's so much we don't know, and that it's important to show proper respect and reverence to the spirits, but I still have a suspicion that too much has been lost as the ancient legends have been passed down. There could very well be other reasons the spirits do such terrible things, reasons that we have yet to relearn. After all, there are conflicting legends about the spirits and the past, each with at least a kernel of truth."
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
Edit:
I'm really excited to see you doing a Quest.
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
Edit:
I'm really excited to see you doing a Quest.
- Location
- United States
Lore Point: Former Capital City is absolutely infested with hostile undead and the spirits that made them. Fortunately for us it's really far from here, so it sounds like an end-game dungeon. Maybe that's where we'll find out why the empire fell.
- Location
- Germany
[X] [Reasoning] Why would their motivations matter to us? They are as the weather or the animals, dangerous when approached incorrectly, harmless when approached correctly and maybe useful if one actually knows what he's doing. I can't even say for sure they have reasons as people have, nevermind find out which those are.
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
[X] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[X] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
- Location
- Germany
There is not really any single place to find out what happened then. You can find a lot of little tidbits everywhere, but you will have to learn much about the old times and visit many places before you can get even a rough idea of the truth as opposed to the often quite colored interpretations of the past that most people will try to sell to you.
- Location
- United States
@Azel, is our shaman literate? Or was that skill also lost in the Fall?
That would help us a LOT if we could just learn how to read what was left behind.
- Location
- Germany
It's not lost, but very few people are still literate and Mahuizoh isn't among them. He has heard about a place of learning within a months march where it's apparently thought to some though. The farmer villages knows some more.@Azel, is our shaman literate? Or was that skill also lost in the Fall?
That would help us a LOT if we could just learn how to read what was left behind.
Had you picked ancestor worship as the value, he would have been literate. The arrival in the ruins would jave played quite differetly too.
Alas, there are other useful things you can pick up from Mahuizoh if he likes you enough and you are willing to spend the time.