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Recap of the previous scene: the leading men of Clan Moose Rock held a late-night ceremony in which they successfully invoked the powerful intervention of an array of spirits — including Ursus, Valdghar, and Arctos. This invocation ceremony was spurred by recent increases in the frequency of bujant attacks and by the previous night's Red Snow, an ominous event indeed.

At the end of the previous scene, a potent conjunction of spirits' willpower occurred, and a wolf bounded into the clearing, then leapt across the fire at Stenn! It is at this point that the current scene commences...

Stenn didn't even flinch. Not only was he somewhat disconnected from the physical, in his current trance state, but also that same state of elevated awareness — The Sharphening — allowed him to perceive more quickly, more fully. Even as the wolf jumped, Stenn knew all was well. So he scrunched forward on the ground toward the fire, so that when the wolf bowled into him he was knocked flat on his back rather than painfully into the log he'd been leaning against.

As the wolf made contact with Stenn, only its front paws connected. Stenn was knocked flat, and the wolf's momentum carried it onward; it leapt the log, claws churning icy dirt as it scrabbled to get turned around. Within four heartbeats, it was back and licked Stenn in the face. Drogan, having risen and drawn back his spear, refrained from attacking, his face registering surprise. "Is that the—"

"Yes!" Ghindar said, rising with aid from his walking staff. "That is the bujant that attacked last night, only ... the foul spirit is gone."

"Something is strange, though," said Drogan. "Wolves don't behave this way."

"Some do," interjected Chief Hrowaka. "Remember the wolf that Rhekla and Jenkla had when we adopted them after defeating Clan Lion's Path? You remember, it was a cub. They called it ... Juga?"

"Joora," said Drogan. "Yes, I had forgotten. I wanted to slay it and you stayed my hand," he said to the chief.

"Ordna. Her name is Ordna," said Stenn. "Ursus sent her," Stenn declared, ruffling the fur on the back of the wolf's neck.

"Stenn is right," Ghindar pronounced. "The Spirits have sent us this boon, after driving the evil entity out of ... Ordna. In doing this, they spat in the face of The Undoer."

Stenn paused in petting Ordna, stared thoughtfully into the flames for a moment then he turned and studied Ordna more carefully. "You're right, Ghindar. This is the same wolf I clubbed on the snout last night. I can see the dried blood on her muzzle. Stenn stood, took a step toward the fire for warmth. Ordna pushed underneath his hand, joining him.

Stenn considered the success of the ritual. Had any of them dreamed it would be this successful? No, they had not.

"What does this mean for my vision quest?" Stenn asked. He directed the question to the chief, who in turned arched an inquiring eyebrow at the shaman.

Ghindar sat down on the log. "It means you have gained a staunch companion," he proclaimed.

"Wrong. He has gained two," declared Drogan, stepping forward and tapping the butt of his spear on the frozen ground for emphasis.

Stenn waited five heartbeats for the chief or shaman to object, then clapped Drogan on the shoulder. "Thank you, old friend."

"No thanks are needed," said the hunter. "Someone has to hunt or you'll starve to death." Four chuckles created a bass harmony in response.

"You leave at first light," the chief decided. "Get what rest you can, although I don't suppose Stenn and Jenkla will do much sleeping." This time, only three chuckles but Stenn laughed quietly. Then he turned to Ghindar. "How will we know where to go, what we are looking for?"

The shaman patted the air in front of him placatingly, reassuringly. "You will not need to worry about that. The Spirits are clearly intervening. They will guide you — through hunger and frost, through fight and flight, through—"

"Through life and death!" all four said in unison.

<< Session 0, Part II: Influences

Session 1, Opening Scene

Although neither he nor his parents knew it, Stenn had begun life as Stenosian Vey. On his Naming Day at the age of twelve, the boy had unknowingly dredged up a moniker from his subconscious: 'Stenn'. Moose Rock Clan accepted and celebrated it. They were simply thankful to now have a shortened way of referring to Chief Hrowaka's son other than the lengthy title that roughly translated as Twig of the Branch of Hrowaka Axe-Arm.

It was 35,386 B.C., a cold night somewhere in what would eventually become the Dordogne region of France. The nineteen year old Cro-Magnon man stood next to his mother's woven sleeping pallet and looked down upon sunken, closed eyes, her pallid face. It was warm enough in the hide-covered dwelling that Stenn's heavily muscled body gleamed with a sheen of sweat. He was clothed only in a breech cloth. The woman on the pallet shivered.

Norda was gravely ill, and Stenn was not Mog-Ur, nor a shaman. "How is she?" queried a gravelly voice from the other side of the dwelling, where the firelight cast a shadowy silhouette of a man. Stenn's father, Chief Hrowaka, was weak and stooped, crippled by severe osteoarthritis and by something much worse. Something that Uta, their medicine woman, could not treat.

Stenn felt helpless. It was impossible to guess which one of his parents Gray Coyote would take first. A bujant had been troubling the village of late. If it followed the usual pattern of such Stenn was torn between staying near his ill mother and joining his fellow hunters.

The chief was very old, sixty-two sheddings of the Bear Tree, if the chief's memory could be trusted. And so Stenn kept watch over his mother while his father lay addled on kuju on the other side of the hide-covered dwelling.

Norda, though delirious (perhaps mercifully) and in and out of consciousness, coughed up more blood. Stenn cradled her head and dabbed at the reddish foam on her lips. A minute went by, and only the crackle of the fire spoke into the darkness. Then Norda was wracked by another bout of coughing, just as the brazen bugling¹ of the bujant shattered the relative quiet of Moose Rock.

Shouts erupted throughout the camp, and there were running feet, peppered with curses, oaths, deprecations, and more than one cry to Ursus² for strength and protection. A young woman of the clan, Jenkla, ducks into the dwelling. Her furs are frost-rimed and snow powders he long, dark hair. "Stenn Pah'et, you are needed!"

Stenn looked up at his mate. "Jenkla Su'hed, Drogan and the others can handle a bu—" His words were clipped off abruptly as Jenkla ran a gloved hand through her hair, dispersing red flakes already beginning to melt in the warmer interior of the frost-den. Blood Dust³!

Jenkla took a step toward Stenn. "It is the Tears: the bujant was merely a harbinger! Many will die this night!"

Stenn moved and embraced Jenkla, cradling her for a moment to his massively muscled chest, a massive hand cradling the back of her neck. Then, releasing her, he pulled on fur-lined leggings and wrapped his bear pelt around himself. "Not if I can help it!" he vowed. Stay with them both," he pleaded as much as instructed, and then he was outside the frost-den and shouting orders.

Meta: see three footnotes below.

I spent a fair amount of time on this post, and it in turn spurred the creation of a Cast of Characters and a Terminology post, so I'm going to award 0.5 XP, bringing new total to 4.0 XP. I choose to spend those 4 XP to increase Stenn's Spirit attribute from 4 to 5.

• XP

  • Lifetime earned: 1.0 (started with 3; +0.5 character creation, +0.5 end of current scene)

  • Lifetime spend: 4.0 (raised Spirit to 5)

  • Stenn's Attributes

    • Body 3 ○○○ stress track: □□□
    • Mind 3 ○○○ stress track: □□□
    • Spirit 5 ○○○○○ stress track: □□□□□

1. Asked the Mythic oracle, Does the bujant attack while Stenn attends his mother? Fate Roll = yes.

2. among the mightiest Spirits; some believe the mightiest

3. the tears shed by Vodor the Sky Spirit as he fights a losing battle with the Void.

Sky Glyphs >>