On the shoulders of giants: a new multiple choices LP!

[Esquilax]

I doubt Curufinwe will end this CYOA no matter how much we fuck up. Maybe when he gets burn out.

I always figured that if we ended up with our warriors dead and all of our women sold as sex slaves to bloodthirsty savages, we could play as a different tribe. If the Obsidian Embers die off, we could always play as the beastmen or the Seer's tribe, right?

 

[Cassidy]

I doubt Curufinwe will end this CYOA no matter how much we fuck up. Maybe when he gets burn out.

I always figured that if we ended up with our warriors dead and all of our women sold as sex slaves to bloodthirsty savages, we could play as a different tribe. If the Obsidian Embers die off, we could always play as the beastmen or the Seer's tribe, right?

Or he could bring INNOVASHUN like the latest Tomb Raider, except for going much, much far, like A Dance with Rogues.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

He could also let us "load a save game"but being unable to choose a previous option we voted for.
EDIT: The barbarians can also serve as a boogeyman to scare other tribes to join or ally with us.

 

[Curufinwe]

I doubt Curufinwe will end this CYOA no matter how much we fuck up. Maybe when he gets burn out.

Keep telling yourself that, it'll make you warmer during the dark, cold nights to come.

 

[Kipeci]

The militia commander picked up the enemy leader's axes, to be brought back and examined further. They were made of a grey substance, smooth and cold to the touch, very different from the stones we knew. Its edges were deadly sharp, even sharper than our obsidian axes. Nobody knew what to make of it.

If this is iron or something, it should be noted that even today's highest quality steel blades aren't nearly as sharp as decent obsidian ones. Iron's advantages are not its sharpness, but rather that it's much easier to find a decent supply of it and it's less brittle than obsidian.

 

[Vernydar]

I think curufinwe is a bastard good guy and so he will kill us mercilessly if we fuck up.

Edit: whoops, see, he told us himself

 

[Curufinwe]

I think Vernydar is a paranoid very wise person who can only see death, gloom and destruction possibly negative outcomes to every action. Afterall, what possibly could go bad with beastmen who apparently know metallurgy and a power-hungry, cunning and slightly deranged fire mage?

 

[oscar]

Mm nothing wrong with obsidian weaponry (unless some Spanish explorers in shiny steel breastplates and helmets turn up), and I think going down the path of making iron and steel would probably take quite a while and be a big 'investment'. Cold someone with any knowledge of metallurgy clear this up?

 

[Jick Magger]

Well since literally all we know about metal weaponry currently is that we can use fire to mould it I wouldn't bet on us making the jump to the iron age any time soon. We still don't have an area to extract iron ore, nor the means to safely extract it. Not to mention we haven't invented furnaces yet.
I'd imagine metallurgy would be a decades-long investment and one that we won't be making until we either find somewhere to mine the material or develop relations/murder everyone in the forests so that we can obtain their ore.

 

[Kipeci]

Expanding our people is more important for the moment than learning how to work metal. Iron would be great for relatively cheaply arming large numbers of people, but we're not all that many, and our obsidian weaponry should be superior for us at the moment as our army is very tiny and needs all the quality it can get.

 

[Vernydar]

Expanding our people is more important for the moment than learning how to work metal. Iron would be great for relatively cheaply arming large numbers of people, but we're not all that many, and our obsidian weaponry should be superior for us at the moment as our army is very tiny and needs all the quality it can get.

Guys, there's an active volcano back there. Active, as in, erupting. What obsidian? We do not HAVE obsidian right now....

 

[oscar]

Do we rely on obsidian for our tools? If so, re-establishing the obsidian supply seems vital both for our defence and our economy.

 

[Vernydar]

Do we rely on obsidian for our tools? If so, re-establishing the obsidian supply seems vital both for our defence and our economy.

I agree that it would be important, but I doubt it would be doable. I specifically asked and curufinwe said there's still smoke rising in the distance...

That said, it's also far away.

 

[oscar]

Still smoke rising, but to my knowledge the obsidian can be found as far as the lava flows. Can't hurt to send a scout and a few people knowledgeable about obsidian to check it out and try and find some.

It'll likely be a bit further to collect than from our earlier spot on the volcano, but we can ship it in bulk downstream in rafts.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Learning to extract (tools and geology), melt (1600C / 2800F furnaces) and fine-shape the metal would only be half the work. Without tempering, the blades would be pretty brittle - especially, anything made thin enough to be sharper than rock. A trick that's many centuries - if not millennia - away. Even with that, the metals' high impurity would still significantly lower the weapons' durability. It can be somewhat offset by folding the blades, but that's a trick even further away.
Which makes the quality of the "lesser chief's" blades (+ supernatural sharpness) a clear sign that either the blades themselves or the technology is a gift of a highly advanced civilization (easily tens of thousands of years ahead + magics).

The tribe has neither the prerequisite technologies nor the infrastructure - not to mention the manpower. It hasn't even learned to temper clay, after all the time they've had it. Forget metalsmithing. Unless just given all that gift-wrapped by Jesus Curufinwe riding a unicorn, it ain't happening in the near 10K years.

 

[Zwist]

Metal can be salvaged from structures using metal.
So if this is in fact a post-apocalyptic world, or there are remnants of a earlier(non human) civilization those might be possible a source.

Also looking into getting obsidian might be a good idea.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Will we make and utilize some Aztec weaponry? After all we do have some obsidian.
http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-weapon.html

 

[Curufinwe]

Almost unanimous vote for B. No striking, preparing and expanding. Time will pass in the next updates then.

The moderate voices prevailed in the council. Without real knowledge of the forest tribes' strength or numbers it was considered foolhardy to just go and attack, especially in light of the heavy losses sustained during the last battle.

As for the Wielder, he apparently took to his new 'duties' without a complaint. He carried away animal dung, used his powers to burn the bigger piles and never protested. He didn't like what he was doing, that was obvious, but he said nothing of it. That gained him no small measure of respect in the tribe, who was pleased to see that even him would not openly go against tribal laws.

Months passed quietly, with no events of import, while we licked our wounds and rebuilt our weaponry using the stones we could find around our camp and on the nearby hills. More pottery, of higher quality was gradually made, until most wooden containers were replaced with clay ones: easier to make and lighter although definitely more fragile.

About an year went by this way. Finally, it was time again to decide how to invest our manpower and where to focus our energies.

A. The head of the militia said: 'With the loss of obsidian weaponry, we risk going back to just a normal although better trained fighting force. We should find a solution to this, the beastmen in the forest are not the only people living around us.'
B. One of the scouts shook his head: 'We better learn what actually goes on around the shores of the lake. We explored less than half of their span, who knows who and what could be lurking elsewhere.'
C. One of the apprentices of the Wielder spoke last: 'Since these are quiet times, we should expend our energies in better understanding the powers the Wielder taught us. We could ask him for advice, give back at least his training duties, provided he teaches only to those we decide. It's too important a part of our strength to keep ignoring.'

Back to regular techno-progress. Choose where to focus for the next time jump.

 

[Kz3r0]

C.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

A.
We must live up to our name.
The second option can be done later and the third is seriously asking for trouble.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

C.

 

[Esquilax]

A

I vote for scouting out the area and perhaps absorbing a few tribes diplomatically, then using them to move against the Wielder.

I am beginning to regret my choice to keep him alive a bit. Civil war would have been the result of killing him, of that I have no doubt, but that might have been better than keeping him alive. Still, hindsight is always 20/20: we made that choice before we had word back from our scouts.

 

[ScubaV]

A, although any of the options sound good and I could be persuaded.

My initial instinct was to go for C, but I think it's obvious the Wielder is just laying low while he schemes based on the update where he had a little outburst and then meekly accepted his punishment. Let's not rush into giving him more outlets just yet. I chose A because without (or minimal) fire magic or obsidian weapons we don't have much to elevate us above other lake tribes. Without obviously superior strength we have less diplomatic leverage. I think better weaponry will also be important if our inevitable confrontation with the Wielder is a violent one. If we need to kill him and any secret apprentices we'll be in much better shape if we're not using crappy stone axes to do it.

Edit: Curufinwe, can you give us any info on the Wielder's powers without the gem? Also, how is the gem being sequestered?

 

[Zwist]

All look good(Yes even C)

A, for now.
If we strike a hornets nest, better be prepared.

 

[Omicron]

C