The reason why I suggested building huts two turns ago in Plan Building Economy and Spirituality is because I suspected that something like this would happen - the tribe being forced to spend most of its actions building residences while its food supply would still be lacking.
That still leaves the problem that the huts weren't waterproof, which meant that water could get in, before freezing, resulting in people dying of the cold. In addition, we need to get the preservation techniques first before any large amount of hunting would actually be useful for the winter, as otherwise all our food would just decay and spoil, meaning we had no stockpile and had wasted the actions of that turn. Now however, once we finish the huts we can just spam food gathering through the winter without any problems (probably).
That still leaves the problem that the huts weren't waterproof, which meant that water could get in, before freezing, resulting in people dying of the cold. In addition, we need to get the preservation techniques first before any large amount of hunting would actually be useful for the winter, as otherwise all our food would just decay and spoil, meaning we had no stockpile and had wasted the actions of that turn. Now however, once we finish the huts we can just spam food gathering through the winter without any problems (probably).
Except our construction method straight out stops working in winter. We aren't going to be digging up frozen mud with bone tools. You might as well try to hew rock.
Our current construction method involves digging up large stones, then slapping on moist clay as mortar to insulate and hold them together, then using a fire to drive out the moisture so that it'd stay that way and the outer layer would shed moisture, or alterantively, we dig a hole, stuff a small tree in it, then use a lot of reeds to secure an elevated flooring for food stores.
Neither of these can be done when winter comes without a lot better tools than we have. Frozen clay is hell to work with.
But we CAN hunt in winter. We're in a mountain valley biome, so theres still wild pigs, beavers, and sussing out hibernating animals. We have a river, which allows some limited ice fishing in winter due to maintaining liquid state. And based on the terrain there's likely edible roots like yams, but winter is a bad time to experiment to find out which one will make you shit your life out for the next few days.
Short version. If we don't finish the homes now we're going to lose people until we have few enough people for the built homes to shelter them because building better just isn't really possible.
If we don't expand the hunting we're going to be dealing with some starvation, but we can continue to hunt and fish for food. They are less efficient, we're likely going to be dedicating all three actions to food gathering in winter, but we can do them.
Adhoc vote count started by Ghostdevil on Jun 17, 2018 at 12:56 PM, finished with 429 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Plan Hut Hut Hut
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed)
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed) x2
-[X] [Action] Go hunting.
--[X] In the valley.
[x] [Action] Go hunting. -[x] In the valley [x] [Action] The small forest critters exist in great numbers, but are hard to catch. Try to catch them with traps. [x] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed)
[X] Plan Hut Hut Hut
There is also the fact that meat can be conserved in winter through cold. Leaving fresh meat to freeze inside a tent should preserve it as in a freezer. The thing we should gather as long as it is dry is firewood, that needs to be stocked under tarps in order to minimize calorie expenditure during winter.
I'll admit the Hut Hut Hut plan is pretty well reasoned out, and that we could probably still research trapping in the winter while construction would come to a grinding halt. So I'm changing my vote.
Adhoc vote count started by Azel on Jun 17, 2018 at 6:25 PM, finished with 441 posts and 23 votes.
[X] Plan Hut Hut Hut
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed)
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed) x2
-[X] [Action] Go hunting.
--[X] In the valley.
[x] [Action] Go hunting. -[x] In the valley [x] [Action] The small forest critters exist in great numbers, but are hard to catch. Try to catch them with traps. [x] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed)
[X] Plan Hut Hut Hut
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed)
-[X] [Action] Your tents are ill suited for this places weather. Begin making more sturdy and permanent homes. (1 of 3 actions completed) x2
-[X] [Action] Go hunting.
--[X] In the valley.
This time the planning was done in hushed whispers. The choice the council was faced with was between getting sufficient shelter for the winter done or sending everyone to obtain whatever food is still available, and neither option looked too appealing. Though the debate did not last long, everyone soon agreeing that a full belly means nothing if you freeze to death in the snow, at the same time trusting the hunters to bring the tribe through the winter, depleted stockpiles or not.
Consumed 1 Month of rations.
Reserves now at 0.3 Months.
To say that things took a turn for the worse would have been an understatement. Ever since many of the older gatherers had been apprenticed under the hunters, they had some difficulty to get enough work done to supply the tribe, but now it became flat out impossible for them to do so. Most of the plants that had fed the tribe in the summer had been either depleted or they had already withered. The shrubs that once bent under the weight of the berries they bore now lay bare. Even the nuts that had almost coated the ground are now gone, either eaten by the boars or rotten from the rain. A few mushrooms that had made up the bulk of last moon's haul remain, though most of them are of the kinds that had the elders who tasted them laid low with cramps and delirium. Try as they might, there was nothing to be found, save a few morsels that would not keep a single person fed for a day, let alone the tribe as a whole. So they instead aided the woodcutters in their tasks, gathering up every last branch and splinter, be it for construction or as fuel for the fires of the cold nights.
Again it came down to the hunters and fishers to supply the food and again their best efforts fell short. The days were shortening rapidly, leaving ever less time to do either of those tasks. The animals of the valley had hardly become any more approachable, still either attacking or running far too fast to catch them. Even the water rats had made themselves scarce already and were hardly anywhere to be found. The largest part of the meager returns of that time were tinged with dread for most of the hunters. While cold rains ravaged the valley itself, snow had already fallen in the mountains. That had driven some flocks of goats down into the yet fertile valley and thus into the waiting spears of the people, yet seeing those grey peaks in a cover of white reminded everyone of what soon would upon them. A winter like none of the tribe had ever seen them.
As the stores began to empty already to feed the tribe, stories were passed among the people, brought down from the flanks of the mountains by a few hunter who had ventured there to find game on the slopes. The snow had piled high as a man's knee already in some places. Other hunter reported even stranger things. They spoke of shapes moving among the drifts that were neither man nor any beast they had ever seen. Their coats were purest white and so long that it dragged in the snow. They moved faster through the snow than even the goats. Never did someone see them up close, only glimpses from afar, and when a hunter would climb the mountains to look for their trails, he would find nothing but pristine snow in their wake.
It was almost an afterthought among all this when the construction drew to a close. The last tent had been torn down already and neatly packed away to use it for smoking at some point, while its occupants moved into their new hut. For all the work that had gone into them, the tribe as a whole agreed that it was worth it. The clearing that had once been filled with tents saw now many sturdy buildings, ringed by the wattle fence. Solid walls of wattle and daub kept out the cold winds and rain while sturdy wood kept aloft thatchet roofs. Enough space was left in the huts for a small fire to banish the cold entirely and comfy cots made from leaves and cut grass had been made for everyone. In the middle of it all still stood the largest campfire, which so often saw the tribe gathering around, though another hut stood on its side.
This one was a bit larger then all of the others, another great fire in its midst to mirror the role of the one outside in the comings moons. It would not fit the entire tribe, no one could ever make a hut large enough to house a tribe after all, but it would still be a place to get together in the long nights to come. That large hut now also held the council and had been made for them to use. The circular room was divided into three sections by the roofs supports and three stones had been hauled inside for the council to sit on, each one decorated with paintings to represent the owner of each seat. The entrance lay between the sections of the matrons and hunters, while the elders sat opposite of it, representing how the people came into life to find their calling, becoming elders as they went on. Here the choices of the tribe would be made in the future and the debates held to determine them, where every one who wished could listen in and offer advice to their leaders.
On this day though it held no great gathering. Only the council members themselves were there, speaking quietly to not be overheard.
Crocus sighed deeply, taking out the strip of dried meat she had been gnawing on. "Not enough to last us a month, that's for sure. The other count it almost compulsively these days, though I'm afraid that the baskets won't multiply themselves on their own."
"Who knows how dire it is?" Wind spoke without taking his gaze from the fire. The hunters had taken their repeated lack of success hard and as if it was their duty to provide for the whole tribe, and as their representative he had taken it the worst. Nary a day passed where he was not found to sullenly brood somewhere whenever he was not busy trying to scrounge up more food. "We are mostly away and since nobody complained all too loudly, most of us think that the gatherers and fishers picked up the slack."
"Among us matrons, no one I think. They too believe that the stores of others are fuller then their own and many are too proud to gossip about running low. It's just a matter of time until they will turn to each other and ask for support, at which point they will notice that no one has more than them. Some of the elders already suspect it, I think."
Winter-Sun just nodded at that, idly drawing shapes in the earth between him and the fire with a stick. "I had some inquiries about it, though I managed to convince everyone to keep it quiet. A panic now would serve the tribe little, and I dread to imagine what would have happened without us to reassure them."
"And what should we do now? It is nice that they listen to us, but they will quickly stop doing so if we have no answers." Of the three of them, Crocus was still the least enamored with the concept of this council. She had never felt herself a particularly wise woman and had been rather surprised to have been chosen to sit here.
"If you ask my elders, moving from the valley to the lower grasslands. Far too many are still not convinced of this place, all the troubles we had here just driving them to deeper conviction on that. I pointed out that we would have had to leave two moons ago to not risk being caught in the cold rains and snow, though that just set them off to complain further. Should the winter be harsh, I think a few will march to the sea in spring, splitting the tribe if necessary to get their way."
"It is not much better for me." The tone of Wind was dejected, another thing that had crept into the once proud man over the last days. "Many are convinced that an earlier hunt would have gone much better or that we should have done a great drive hunt on the mountain beasts while the peaks were not already snowed in. As it is, they speak of taking as many of the gatherers as possible to aid them in topping off the stores. Once they notice that there is barely anything in there, they will do something drastic."
"The beast, I take it?" While he spoke it, Winter-Sun began to sketch out the monstrous creature with his stick.
"Most likely. I've said it myself after all that it would be a great bounty for the winter and many will hold me to my words." He shook his head and looked over to the elder. "I've never thanked you for talking me down that day. You spoke the truth and nearly predicted what would come. Now winter is upon us and if my hunters go out and die on the beasts claws again, the tribe will starve to death once its meat runs out."
Silence fell for the longest while, all of the assembled wrangling with their own worries and regrets. It was Winter-Sun that broke it after a time, taking his eyes away from his doodles to look the other two in the eyes. "A storm is coming." Both others nodded, but the elder waved them off. "I do not mean these troubles. I mean a true storm. Some of mine have taken up to watch the clouds from the large boulder down the river. They say that it looks as if a storm closes in and given the cold, it will be snow. There will be no gentle easing into things for us."
Wind cursed quietly, then spoke aloud what quite a few in tribe had been thinking lately. "Maybe we should have tried to appease the spirits after all. They seem set on seeing us dead."
"We have learned much from our hardships and we will learn much from this one too." There was conviction behind the elders words. Enough of it to chase away the gloom that had set into the hut. "Be it the spirits, fate or simply misfortune, but we got handled a challenge, not assured death. We would all be laying in the grass already if that was what the world wanted. We need to keep our hope and find ways to overcome this, not wait for something that merely seems inevitable."
Even his words could not truly raise the mood, though Crocus gathered herself again. "Rations, then. Stretch what we have as far as we can, sit out the storm at least and hope that the animals are hit worse then us. One decent hunt might get us over the moon."
"If we put the tribe on lower rations, we will weaken it, making it all the harder to get something done." Winds mien turned even darker as he spoke. They had failed the tribe and everyone would now pay the price. "And then? If we make it to the next moon?"
To this Crocus just shrugged. "Sit back down and try to make it another moon." Her eyes dejectedly fell to the fire. "Not much else that we can do now."
Winter has come. The tribe is on the brink of starvation. A snow storm is coming in. What should they do?
Available Actions: 3
Food Situation: Critical (Gathering, Fishing)
Reserves: 0.3 Months
Winter has come. Malus of -60 applied to Gathering.
Malus of -20 applied to Fishing, Trapping and Hunting.
Snow storm is coming. Malus of -30 to Gathering, Fishing, Trapping and Hunting.
Crocus has proposed to lower the rations and thus stretch out the tribes supply. Shall this be done?
[] [Rations] Lower the rations. (Malus of -10 to all rolls per 0.1 months of rations saved. Maximum of 0.5 months of rations can be saved.)
-[] Write-In how much
[] [Rations] Do not lower the rations.
Available Actions
Sustenance:
[] [Action] Go hunting.
-[] In the valley. -[] In the mountains. Too dangerous due to the weather.
-[] Kill the great beast.
-[] Write-In
[] [Action] The small forest critters exist in great numbers, but are hard to catch. Try to catch them with traps. [] [Action] Put more effort into gathering to create a stockpile. Large scale gathering impossible in winter. [] [Action] Put more effort into fishing to create a stockpile. River will freeze over due to the snow-storm. Focused fishing impossible until spring.
Resources:
[] [Action] Make new tools from the strange stones for the entire tribe. (Bonus to Gathering efficiency.)
[] [Action] Try to learn more about the wood you can now gather and look for useful things to make from it.
[] [Action] Investigate the mountains if you can find other useful things.
Construction:
No construction actions available.
Other:
[] [Action] Explore your surroundings further.
-[] Follow the river into the valleys.
-[] Go towards the sunset.
-[] Explore the mountains.
-[] Write-In
[] [Action] Sit out the weather. (Bonus to Exposure rolls.)
AN: The hatred of the dice stays strong. If you run low on food this turn, it will incur the same malus as rationing next turn. If you run out, there will be an emergency vote. Unpleasant things might need to be done in that case.
