Rauko

[JEB Davis]

Next morning he feels better. He made it through just like his father would have said. Back in the canoe floating downstream after a while the air has a new smell to it and Rauko wonders what this would be. Climbing a peak near the bank, there is water ahead for as far as he can see. If this isn't the largest lake he has ever heard of, then it must be the sea!

He hurries back to the river and not long after he's out in the body of water. Deciding that if this IS the sea, he should follow the coast southward, that's the course he takes. Hopefully he will end up at a settlement on the shore or be able to see one from high ground.



His roasted cuts are now spoiled and he has failed in a hunt for an elk during one of several climbs on the shore to look for villages.

[JEB Davis]

He continues paddling along the shore heading southward, and becomes convinced this must be the sea because it seems to go on forever. Finally after several attempts to see a settlement, he spots one in the distance!



Rauko heads inland.

[JEB Davis]

The village sage loves to talk, and Rauko learns that this is a village of the Driikilaiset in the western part of their territory. There are many more villages to the east and south, some even are surrounded by walls! Rauko has never heard of that and is interested to see it.

This village has swine and are willing to trade for them, but Rauko has no need for a pig. The villagers say that nearby settlements have dogs he could trade for.

Mostly, Rauko is impressed and even a little bit in awe of the wealth evident in the villagers' clothing and the finely crafted goods and weapons they possess.

He finds an incredible mail shirt the Driik call a "habergeon" that looks like the armor of legends and falls in love with it. Even offering everything he can spare (besides his furs, which his father says are for trading with the foreigners), Rauko doesn't have enough goods to trade for it.



Disappointed, but hopeful for a similar find in another village, he barters his hunting knife for a fine-quality round shield. This could be a lifesaver the next time he encounters an archer.

The villagers invite him to sleep for the night in their common lodge.

[JEB Davis]

Early morning Rauko takes his leave and journeys further inland and climbs to high ground... ice is beginning to creep from shore. The herd of reindeer beckons to him.



Dropping everything except bow and knife, the hunt begins as Rauko moves stealthily across a mire until the deer are seen. A lucky shot hits the deer's lower leg and the rest is a simple chase.

[JEB Davis]

With all the gear and the canoe he's been hauling around, there is no way he can carry all the meat the deer will provide, so he makes a shelter and plans to tan the hide and carry the meat back to the village to trade most of it.



On second thought, he grabs some cords and hopes the villagers will let him smoke the meat in return for a portion of it.

[JEB Davis]

The villagers are happy to let him smoke the meat in exchange for 1 of every 5 pieces. Rauko sleeps in the common building and returns to his camp in the morning. He spends the day making & setting some loop snares, and making fibres from elk tendons he's been carrying since the early part of his journey to the sea. These will be useful for making arrows.

He also makes a nice club and finishes tanning the deer fur, but he is not happy with the result.

Rauko's dreams have not plagued him for a couple of nights and he wonders if being among the villagers has anything to do with this. He's exhausted and hopeful for a good sleep.



Waking refreshed from dreamless sleep, he thanks the spirits. What would his father do now? With only 7 roasted meat cuts, the answer is obvious... HUNT.

He gathers his bow and arrows, then stops in the middle of eating because a reindeer wanders near his snare trap, grazing.



Apparently the spirits have brought the hunt to Rauko!

[JEB Davis]

More deer show themselves. Knowing a bit about the habits of reindeer, Rauko waits rather than jumping at the first one. Soon a doe is targeted and hit in the chest, and she bolts in fear. Rauko runs as the herd flees to the west.



The herd runs west again and he chases... they stop, and Rauko sees the first missed arrow near them. The wounded doe is sheltered behind two others. "The spirits' wrath falls on the careless hunter," his father once told him... "when you wound an animal, finish it, don't go after another and let the first suffer a slow death."



So the chase begins again without a shot. The herd runs fast, but the wounded one slows quicker, is separated from her fellows, and becomes doomed by exhaustion and the original arrow wound. A strong kick to the stomach knocks her down, and Rauko knifes the vein in her neck and she bleeds out.

[JEB Davis]

Returning to his camp with the meat and hide, he begins tanning. Roasting most of the meat, he keeps some raw because he plans to find another village and trade for a dog. The dog would probably eat the raw meat; otherwise he could roast it tomorrow.

Heading east, it's evening when he finds a village and meets two woodsmen there. They have dogs and Rauko likes the look of one, which Eero says should hunt well. He trades a handaxe, 8 arrows, and about 7 dozens of roasted deer cuts for the dog, which reminds him of one his parents had.

It's late and he tells Jeremiah he will return tomorrow to help gather the stones for his fireplace. In the morning he feeds the dog some raw meat. While checking snare traps he sees an ermine running out of a heather patch. Rauko commands the anxious dog to attack and she bolts after it for a while then stops and looks back, panting. He repeats the command and another chase ends with the ermine escaping into spruces. The dog barks and Rauko catches up to find she has killed the animal already.

[JEB Davis]

The rest of the day is resetting snare traps, making bone arrowheads, cooking the ermine and a few of the remaining deer cuts, and finishing tanning the reindeer fur (which turns out poorly). It's afternoon and Rauko is too tired to gather stones for the village woodsman. By late evening, only one of more than a dozen arrowheads is what he would call average. Exhausted, he falls asleep in the shelter.

Morning comes and he heads back toward the "new" east village looking for stones and gives them to Jeremiah, then returns "home" to gather goods for trading. It's a very warm day for late fall and the sun is shining beautifully, so the long walk with his new dog is a joy. For a while he forgets the loss of his father and mother.

Traveling back to the village, they tell him of other settlements to the north-east. He finds nothing to trade in the northern one and heads back to the shelter.



On the way they find a squirrel and Rauko tests the dog's skill at chasing it up a tree. After a while she calms down and they continue on, leaving the squirrel chittering on a high branch.

[Dungeon Smash]

Enjoying this play-through, thank you for sharing this

[JEB Davis]

After another peaceful sleep, in the morning he is again impressed by the dog because she is awake but did not eat from the pile of deer meat until Rauko told her to eat.

It's time to pack up and move to another camp, closer to the other villages in the north-east. He's never carried such a heavy load, so he straps some items on the dog's back. They walk east, find a small lake, and build a shelter on the shore. Rauko sets 5 snare traps and makes some more bone arrowheads.

[JEB Davis]

"You need a name, but I don't know what to call you yet," Rauko says to the dog as he shares some roasted deer meat with her. He ties her to a tree so he can do some fishing without her disturbing the water.

"Launching the canoe into the water backwards is said to give a fisherman good luck," an old man once told him.



There must be some truth to that, because by evening 2 fish are caught. After setting the dog loose, Rauko sacrifices the trout to the spirit of the lake in thanks, and gives the roach to the dog but she must not be hungry yet. Then it's time for sleep even though it's not very late.

[JEB Davis]

In the small hours, Rauko wakens with an uneasy feeling. The lake spirit should be happy after his sacrifice the night before, but then he wonders if perhaps leaving the grouse in the snare was not the right thing to do. Should he set it free or go ahead and kill it?



After giving the roach to the dog again, he decides to kill the grouse and sacrifice half of it's meat after he starts tanning the leather. The uneasy feeling doesn't go away and he is starting to feel a bit afraid of what might be going on at this lake. Is the spirit of the lake being protective of the fish? Or is there a spirit of the woods angry about the grouse?

Early morning comes and Rauko decides he will stay there one more day and night, but not do anymore fishing until things improve.

Gathering goods for trade, he sets off with the dog toward the 2 villages nearby that he has not visited yet. Neither village has any armor available. A craftsman tells him there is a village to the north-east.



After walking all the way to the river's mouth, Rauko finds there is no village!

[JEB Davis]

It's mid-day and the pair have been following the river north-east in search of a settlement. It's been a long day walking and Rauko is weary by evening, so he stops to spend the night on the riverbank.

He sits on the shore and wonders what a water spirit would look like if he ever was to meet one. Would it look like a person, or a faceless horror?



He lays down after feeding the dog and falls into a deep sleep. Again, he is troubled by dreams of his father's death and the bear that killed him haunts him until the small hours before sunrise, when he awakes. The river water is shockingly cold as he splashes his face to dispell the night's dreams.

Walking along the river, just before dawn it snows for a little while. Then he sees what looks like an elk to the south and tells his dog to stay quiet until they get closer. He walks across a mire and into spruces with bow ready, but finds no tracks or sign of the animal, so he returns to pick up his items and heads back to the river.

Or could a water spirit even be made of water?

[JEB Davis]

They have now run out of food and Rauko didn't bring his fishing pole. Heading south should get them back to the shelter, but by late morning he spots 2 villages! The first has basically nothing but grains and turnips, so he bids them goodbye.

Just to the west is the 2nd village, and he trades fur footwear for smoked meat and 2 ropes. Then he finds an elk fur, a pot, a finely made knife, and a bag of barley to make stew with, and trades the shortsword he's been carrying since he came down the river after losing his father.