So honestly with main there is no wrong choice, I mostly voted for social because the earlier we're social the more friends we'll likely develop, though Spirit Lore is great as well. I do think focusing on Healing and Plant lore is one of the best ideas through our entire apprenticeship.
My thing with voting for Spirit Lore and Herblore was that the Shaman is old and there are already concerns of him dying before he passes everything on to the next generation, and the other apprentice is woefully inept at being a shaman so the task falls to us. Of those skills, social skills can be picked up later, even after the Shaman's death. But the other two need to be honed while we still have the advantage of a teacher.
Though why are we so focused on learning how to fight already? Its better to avoid combat for now and thus dodge is a better option. As a Shaman beating things up should be our last solution, hiding and evading things should be our go to, followed by talking our way out, and only resorting to violence when all else fails.
I just really want a last-ditch form of defense if running away isn't an option at all. That's my first priority, and after that I want dodging. I really want to combine those two skills for our own fighting style.
I just really want a last-ditch form of defense if running away isn't an option at all. That's my first priority, and after that I want dodging. I really want to combine those two skills for our own fighting style.
I mean last ditch can be holding the pointy object in-front of you and hoping the thing runs into it.
Though none of us really actually disagree, we just have very slight order preferences, as eventually I'd like to get the knife fighting but since we're not going to venture out this action I don't think we need to know how to fight yet.
I mean last ditch can be holding the pointy object in-front of you and hoping the thing runs into it.
Though none of us really actually disagree, we just have very slight order preferences, as eventually I'd like to get the knife fighting but since we're not going to venture out this action I don't think we need to know how to fight yet.
I mean, by the same logic we don't need to know how to dodge yet since we're not venturing out this turn. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to pick it up next turn. I really want that fighting style.
I mean, by the same logic we don't need to know how to dodge yet since we're not venturing out this turn. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to pick it up next turn. I really want that fighting style.
[X] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[X] [Main] Spirit Lore
[X] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to movesilently.
[X] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[X] [Main] Spirit Lore
[X] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
Sounds good. Dumping social is something I absolutely expected to be a popular choice when I read that, and I'm not stoked about doing it, but it is a good point that we have to learn this stuff now. I always respect competence. It is something that should be remedied afterwards though.
Dumping social is something I absolutely expected to be a popular choice when I read that, and I'm not stoked about doing it, but it is a good point that we have to learn this stuff now.
I actually really wanted to get social skills early on, but the Shaman is apparently on a timer and we have no idea when he'll drop dead, so we've got to learn herblore and spirit lore while we can. Soon, though. I want that silver tongue, dammit.
[X] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[X] [Main] Spirit Lore
[X] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
I actually really wanted to get social skills early on, but the Shaman is apparently on a timer and we have no idea when he'll drop dead, so we've got to learn herblore and spirit lore while we can. Soon, though. I want that silver tongue, dammit.
Keep in mind that teaching an apprentice takes 6 years to get them to a level where they are deemed sufficiently skilled to perform their trade on their own. Replacing a highly skilled shaman like Mahuizoh is a bit harder then grabbing the next guy that can brew a wound salve without poisoning himself. You would need many years of experience after the apprenticeship to fill those footprints.
Just because he is worried about his successor you don't need to expect him to keel over next month.
So basically, he's aware of just how long it takes to train up a successor, and the problems if he dies before his successor is adequately trained. So he tries to make sure that there's at least one person around who could ensure the tribe isn't COMPLETELY screwed if he dies due to freak occurrence before training up his successor, and the moment he starts feeling like age/injuries/life is catching up to him, he starts to seriously look for someone to train up to be his ACTUAL successor...
If he hangs around for 4 or 5 years after his successor is trained up, well that just means that the successor can take over the more risky/away from the tribe tasks, whilst he devotes his attention to actually tending the tribe and dealing with the more time consuming tasks that might otherwise be delayed or done faster than what results in the best product...
So basically, he's aware of just how long it takes to train up a successor, and the problems if he dies before his successor is adequately trained. So he tries to make sure that there's at least one person around who could ensure the tribe isn't COMPLETELY screwed if he dies due to freak occurrence before training up his successor, and the moment he starts feeling like age/injuries/life is catching up to him, he starts to seriously look for someone to train up to be his ACTUAL successor...
If he hangs around for 4 or 5 years after his successor is trained up, well that just means that the successor can take over the more risky/away from the tribe tasks, whilst he devotes his attention to actually tending the tribe and dealing with the more time consuming tasks that might otherwise be delayed or done faster than what results in the best product...
[X] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[X] [Main] Spirit Lore
[X] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
They don't have one. They grow a few herbs for their own uses, but mostly rely on Mahuizoh and the traders for what little medical supplies they need.
Living a sedentary lifestyle comes with a significant decrease of malnutrition cases and random jaguar bites.
They don't have one. They grow a few herbs for their own uses, but mostly rely on Mahuizoh and the traders for what little medical supplies they need.
Living a sedentary lifestyle comes with a significant decrease of malnutrition cases and random jaguar bites.
Mostly questioning the traders about the wider world or bartering with them.
The latter is mostly relevant in later turns where you actually have something to barter with and the former makes not for a very interesting chapter, which is why I think about condensing.
I'm fine with condensing for this turn and maybe next turn. Give us a few scenes to give us an idea on what the later turns will be and move on to a turn where we can actually do stuff... and use the new information to maybe plan for later...
Life quickly settled into a new routine for you. On most days, Atl and you just followed Mahuizoh on his various errands and helped him do his work. Most of it looked quite absurd at first, like how to make a foul-smelling brew by adding various herbs to it in a very specific order, but apparently the resulting fever medication wouldn't work all that well if you just tossed everything into the pot as was your first impulse. Other things shed some light on the puzzling things the other adults did all day, like giving a rare grass a good shake four times a day before putting it back on its rack so that it dries instead of molds.
In the evenings, you would usually sit around a small fire as he taught you about the various spirits in the lands. Little embers that float harmlessly in the air, just to erupt into a furious blaze if you get too close to them. Of young woman who completely wrap themselves in strips of cloth and grow furious at anyone glimpsing what lies below. It certainly puts your desire for exploration into perspective to hear about these things. All too easily you could see yourself chasing such a strange ember and getting burned for it. Though what's supposed to be so terrifying about a woman in tattered cloth still eludes you.
And today is finally the day you will meet a spirit in the flesh! Mahuizoh had promised this to you for the better part of a year now, claiming that it you would go once your work reached a good standard, but you suspect he just wanted to get you to work harder while waiting for the tribe to come into this area again. It's supposed to be a quiet and solemn walk to a specific clearing, were it not for your ever-present fourth companion.
The sharp whack of a wooden spear against your shoulder shakes you out of your thoughts. "Eyes on the bushes, Yaxkin. The beasts won't wait until you are done admiring Atls backside." Despite your attempts to not let her get under your skin that easily again, you stand straight as tree and very pointedly look above Atl, who is walking right in front of you. Where else are you supposed to look? Well... probably at the bushes.
A soft poke with the butt of the spear prods you forward. "You can always make this stop. Just say that you give up." You don't even deign that comment with an answer anymore. The huntress who accompanied you so long seems never to go out with the others and is instead always nearby and ready to accompany Mahuizoh on his various trips out of the camp. You see her more often than your own mother these days, and yet the woman isn't even telling you her name!
"Two on the left. Ten steps in." As no response comes, you are slightly relieved. The rules of your game where simple. Whenever Mahuizoh had nothing to say to you, you would call out all red flowers on your way and a rough distance from your path. Miss something? Whack with the spear. Call out a wrong count? Two whacks for not looking closely enough. The wrong distance carried no punishment, except when it did. That was supposed to keep you alert. This was supposed to train your awareness of your surroundings and how to evade unexpected attacks, since you were theoretically allowed to dodge the blows. Except that the woman was silent as a cat and fast to boot. There was not a single strike you had dodged thus far and her sardonic comments made you suspect she just liked to torment you.
"One on the right. Twe- Fifteen steps." You get a whack on each shoulder for that and look back over again before whirling around. "What was that for? It's right over there! A huge red flower and not a second one in sight."
She grins far too broadly for your taste as she leans down to you. "That, my little shaman, isn't a flower, but a mushroom. Even I know that."
"What!? But it's shaped like a flower!"
"Oh wise old man. Please enlighten your apprentice where the words of a simple huntress are not sufficient."
As you look over your shoulder, you see Atl and Mahuizoh have stopped again to look at the exchange. "I'm afraid that she is right, Yaxkin. That is the corpus of a fungus. A rather foul-smelling specimen, which has a few interesting properties when added to a bruise balm. I will explain the details later."
You look back to the huntress who still grins at you and slowly mouths 'three words' at you. "I thought you would be training me..."
"I've actually only agreed to your master's request to 'do something with her' and I think this counts as 'something'."
"Shouldn't my master protect me from abuse?" You looked back over your shoulder, but Mahuizoh just shook his head and looked amused by the whole thing.
"Not if my apprentice is asking for it. My, I seem to recall that you nearly begged her to train you in some of her skills. Truth be told, it is quite funny to watch you two and I'm very curious by now which of you stubborn womans folk will give in first."
"But..."
"Look little shaman, as long as you try to pretend to be a hunter, I will pretend to train you as one. If you had wanted to become one, you shouldn't have apprenticed under Mahuizoh. You can't have both. And now eyes back on Atl and go on, for your actual master has a lesson for you. And I've heard something about bruise balm and smelly mushrooms, so look happy. Your sore shoulders will come in handy for another one when we are back!"
You slowly turned around and started marching again. You would have both. If she liked it or not, you would do what was needed to...
"Oh, and that where roughly twenty steps, not fifteen. Surprise attack!"
... beat her over the head with her own spear.
"Leave the packs here and just take the fruit we brought."
You could have hugged Mahuizoh for that statement, since getting the heavy pack off your poor shoulders is the best thing happening to you since sunrise. Getting the mushy and slightly rancid papayas out of their jars is decidedly less pleasant, but it seems that spirits like their food a bit spoiled. Or it's just that they don't mind and thus there is little point in giving them the fresh ones.
"You remember the rules I've told you?"
Both Atl and you nod and rattle them down one last time in near perfect unison. "Don't move unless told to do so. Don't try to take the fruit back. If they come for it on their own, throw it halfway to them. Don't throw it at them. Don't try to hide it. If they make eye contact, keep it until they break it."
A quick nod is your only acknowledgement as you slowly walk to the clearing. No grass grows here for one reason or another, despite the sun shining brightly down on fertile soil. Even the indistinct sounds of the jungle are oddly muted here. The huntress had stayed back with the packs and so it is just the three of you who walk to the middle of the clearing and silently wait for the spirits to come. You don't know for how long you waited, since standing around with mushy fruit in your hands while waiting to see something that you can't see was quickly proving to be quite trying on your patience. Especially since you needed to be very quiet or they wouldn't come at all.
It startles you a bit to hear one of the papayas hit the ground behind you, and as you slowly turn, careful to not make any noise or drop something, you see Mahuizoh pointing to a spot between the trees and motioning to crouch down. It strains your eyes to squint into the shadows while facing the sun and you nearly miss it, but then the papaya rustles a bit as if something was prodding it. 'Hard to see, even when you know they are there' had your master told you, and as you see the rank fruit wobble around, you are inclined to agree. It is not until there is piece of the fruit missing all of the sudden that you spot the spirit. A tiny face, not unlike that of a man, which is stained with the slightly orange juices of its meal.
It's as if you are trying to look at the tip of you nose. It's there and you can clearly see it, but doing so is requiring all of your attention. You blink once and instead of a tiny, black monkey with three tails you had managed to make out, you only see a slightly darker patch of shadows resting next to the fruit. With great effort you can see behind... whatever it is that is hiding the spirit again after a while, and curious yellow eyes with two slits stare back at you for a few heartbeats before it digs back in.
The day passes all too soon for your liking. At Mahuizos direction, you throw the fruit into the shadows at the edge of the clearing one by one and silently watch the peaceful spirits feast on them. So this is what it meant to be a shaman and to commune with them. In the end, not all of them were the great and terrible monsters others saw them as.
It is quite nice to return to the farmers village this year. No longer are you just another child or the snot-nosed brat hanging around Mahuizo. Your necklace has grown by quite a few beads and a few feathers over the two years you've been his apprentice already. It's a shame that the tooth you pulled out of the jaw of that hunter last moon broke during the procedure. The tribe still makes jokes about the mighty beast you've felled on that day, though you feel a bit sorry at the hulking man who cried quite pitifully as you pried it out of his jaw.
Herbalism
Main Action + Passive Gain (Survival Training) -> 14d100 = 825
Herbalism 1 (0/300) -> Herbalism 2 (525/600)
Trait: 81 -> Yes. See bottom.
Medicine
Main Action -> 12d100 = 559
Medicine 0 (0/100) -> Medicine 2 (159/600)
Trait: 28 -> No
Bladed Weapons -> Knife Fighter
You are trained in the use of knives for combat. Add +20 to your Bladed Weapons skill when using a knife, dagger or similar weapon. Add +10 if you are using a short sword.
Survival + Herbalism -> Living Off The Land
When using your Herbalism skill, add +5 per rank in Survival and when using Survival, add +5 per rank in Herbalism.
Attributes
Main Actions (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> +1 Intelligence, +1 Concentration
Attribute gain from secondary actions? 87 -> Yes, +1 Dexterity
Not much has changed in the village since your last visit. You make camp on one of the fallow fields around the palisade protecting the accumulation of huts within as always. Soon the hunters will swarm out and intentionally over-hunt the area so that there are fewer animals around to damage the crops. That arrangement was always greatly profitable for both parties, and trading furs for grain and medicine for a few odds and ends is another nice benefit.
To you, the village has lost a bit of its luster. Being different than dreary camp life and the chance to meet interesting people had once appealed greatly to you, but tilling fields is not quite as interesting as some of the more arcane things Mahuizo is teaching you these days. He cryptically hints lately that you might be not that far off from being ready for a rather difficult branch of his arts and you are rather intrigued by that, even if the old man is staying mum on what exactly it is. However, the traders are another matter.
They are walking back and forth between Tlamacatzintlihuacan and Zacatltlalmonton. The first is a settlement in some ruins and apparently a place of learning. Mahuizo once told you, should you wish to learn to read and write the old tongue of Cualli, this would be the place to go and that it's supposed to have many texts from the ancient times preserved there. The other is a larger village like the one you stand before, built on a grassy hill near a large river.
You can usually spot in which direction the traders go by the load of their carts. When they come from Tlamacatzintlihuacan, they bear tools made out of metal, good bows, and an assortment of herbs, while on the way back they carry barrels of salted fish and corn. The skins your hunter bring seem to be quite in demand on both sides of the route, so there is nearly always someone willing to haggle with you tribe, even though the more exotic goods are far too pricy for anyone of yours to afford.
None the less, you've worked a bit extra the last months after Mahuizo allowed you to barter some of your medicines away.
Do you wish to buy something from the traders?
[] [Trade] Write-In
[] [Trade] Nothing for now.
What do you wish to focus your studies on for the next two years?
Pick 2 main topics:
[] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[] [Main] Spirit Lore
[] [Main] Social Skills
Pick 3 secondary activities:
[] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[] [Secondary] Learn archery.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to track animals.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
[] [Secondary] Learn something else: Write-In
[] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
[] [Secondary] Explore the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Attend the offerings to the spirits.
[] [Secondary] Do something different: Write-In
AN: Nothing new in the turn options. Next turn, you will be able to learn Spear Fighting and Wrestling too, but it's still unavailable due to your youth and thus small frame.
You are currently in possession of a knife made from sharpened bone and can get a simple bow from the tribe if you intend to pick up archery. If you want better equipment, you will have to haggle with the traders, but don't expect metal goods.
[X] [Trade] A good obsidian knife
[X] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[X] [Main] Spirit Lore
[X] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[X] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[X] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
Soon, though. I want that silver tongue, dammit.
