Mik

[JEB Davis]

His southern exploration continues... while roasting a pike and hanging the deer meat up to dry at the lakeshore shelter, he spots a lynx in the trees. He remains alert while finishing his task and then waits a long while to make sure the lynx will keep a good distance away before spending the night in the shelter.

Fortunately, the lynx must not have been hungry because it did not visit during the night.



Mik heads westward in the morning and finds an Owl village, where he trades his heavy stag fur and 4 deer furs of varying quality for two smaller but precious glutton furs and some dried bear meat. This is a big relief as he traded over 50 pounds of fur for about 5 pounds of highly valuable fur.

He then heads north and finds a strange thing... a village with three shamans who seem to have met to share their secrets. Mik finds this mysterious and ponders what it would be like to be a shaman.

[JEB Davis]

It is now about 2 1/2 months until the middle of winter and the weather is around the freezing point. But Mik is still comfortable exploring the wilderness and he finds a village in the eastern part of Owl territory. In the village, an adventurer lies wounded in one of the kotas... he tells of an encounter with a bear and promises a reward if Mik will return the spear his father gave to him long ago.

After a long search, Mik finds the tracks of a bear and some blood in the thin snow. He follows the tracks and hears a roar! The bear has found him. Mik draws an arrow and hits the bear with the broadhead in it's shoulder. The bear charges, limping, and a thrown axe further slows the beast, but it closes the distance and they fight claw and mace.

Mik is wounded by a swipe to his elbow, but prevails and kills the bear with his mace. He thanks the spirits, binds his wound, skins the bear, and begins tanning & drying meat after building a shelter at the edge of a mire nearby. Then he returns the adventurer's spear and receives his reward of expert instruction in the use of bows, for which Mik is very grateful.

He returns to the shelter feeling proud of himself and marvels at the size of the bear teeth he has won.

[JEB Davis]

The bear hide is rinsed and ready for beating, but Mik is anxious to return home to Pain Summit.
As he travels the penninsula to his home, he finds one of his traps has caught a beautiful arctic fox!

After killing the fox by kicking it to hopefully preserve it's fur, he notices old badger tracks running by the trap, and he sets the trap again a short distance away.

[JEB Davis]

He spends a great deal of time finishing the bear fur, beating and stretching it until he is exhausted, but
the best he can do looks pretty rough. He turns in for the night... at least the fur is very warm to sleep  on.

The next day he skins the arctic fox and actually does a fine job of it... he's optimistic about this potentially very valuable prize.
Mik checks 3 breams he has been drying and finds they are ready to put in the cellar.

While the fox fur is tanning, he looks over his clothing and armor. His lamellar cuirass needs to be repaired, and he has enough lamellar pieces salvaged from Njerpezit enemies to do the job. But his elbow is still bothering him and is a distraction so he will wait for it to feel better.

In the meantime, he makes arrows for practice shooting, even though he seldom makes a nice arrow.

Finally, the finished arctic fox fur is high-quality!

[JEB Davis]

His scraped elbow still not fully back to normal, he spends his time practicing with weapons and making fowling arrows.

Mik decides to check all the traps on the penninsula and finds he has caught two willow grouse and a small hare, which has already died in a loop snare but was still fresh.

[JEB Davis]

Two days later, his freshly roasted food is gone. Mik needs to go out hunting, but doesn't want to go without the protection of his best piece of armor. He has waited long enough for his elbow to heal, so he undertakes the task of repairing the cuirass.

Using his best-quality cords, and the salvaged lamellar plates, he fixes it to the best of his ability. It turns out looking very nice!

[JEB Davis]

He heads north of Pain Summit lake and from a hill spots the wolves seen a while back near his loop snares. With them still in the area he definitely needs to be careful to avoid an encounter. So he checks the snares and then turns west and then south-west. No game is in sight except a squirrel, which he knocks out of a tree and chases down.

The squirrel hide looks very nice, so Mik decides to tan it right there, using the water in his skin and the fat. He does so, and night falls along with snow that keeps him from sleeping. Finally the snow stops and he catches some sleep next to a good fire. The squirrel hide turns out very nice quality.

Mik travels further west than he has ever explored and finds only a tiny settlement... no big game animals whatsoever... only another squirrel and lingonberries to supplement the 2 dried breams he brought. This has become a hungry expedition. He picked some mushrooms and identifed them as redleggers, which are poisonous.

So Mik arrives back at Pain Summit with only 2 squirrel hides to show for his trip.

[JEB Davis]

Mik eats sparingly from his tiny stock of dried bear meat and has only a dozen pieces left in his cellar. He reckons there is about a week remaining until the deer meat he hung to dry at his furthest-south shelter will be ready. In the meantime, he breaks some ice and sets his net, check his traps (all are empty), and fish for a few days before heading south.

The fishing is slim the first day... only 3 roaches after fishing from afternoon 'till dark. He knows his fishing skills are not very good and his fishing pole is a poor homemade one, so this isn't surprising.

Next morning... the spirit of the lake provides like never before, and Mik offers up the pike in thanks.
Tomorrow he will pull up the net.

[JEB Davis]

The roasted fish is delicious, and after practicing with mace and shortsword, he wraps himself in his bear fur. Morning dawns cold and he heads to the raft and chops the ice out to the net.

There are no fish in the net. Mik certainly can't hold this against the lake spirit after yesterday's catch. It's time for a short trip to a village to trade for a week's worth of food.

On the way he sees a strange man from a hilltop, lightens his load and goes to investigate with longbow at the ready. The man, armed with spear & axe, tries to evade and Mik follows at a distance until he has a clear shot and the man is obviously one of the foreign raiding scouts. Mik's fine broadhead tears a wound in the man's arm and he runs. Mik is faster and the next arrow slices into his thigh from 18 paces. The Njerpezit decides he can't escape and limps forward with spear raised. Mik aims and kills him with a 3rd  broadhead to the chest. There is little of worth other than the spear and the man's head, so Mik burns the body.



By afternoon he reaches Summerfront village, trades the Njerp's axe for a fox fur, old Rautia wants him to deliver a message to Antti. Mik says his goodbyes and heads north east.

[JEB Davis]

Mik renews his aquaintances in Antti's village, gives him the message, and shows the children the Njerpezit head he carries. He stays the night in one of their kotas, trading stories with the adventurers. He wakes well before dawn and makes cords & repairs his belt & arm guards with material from the Njerpezit's clothing while waiting for the others to wake.

Returning back towards Rautia's village with a message from Antti, Mik avoids a bear seen about 400 paces away. A sudden encounter with traders yields 14 fine arrows for fox & arctic fox furs. The message is delivered to Rautia and Mik heads back home with enough food to last a week.

Interesting how a short trip to a nearby village turns into quite an adventure. In the distance he sees the lake at Pain Summit... Arriving home, he is greeted by a hare in a snare and his shoe is it's last scare.

It's late afternoon, the Njerpezit head is placed as a warning, the tanning is started, the meat hung to dry, and it's time for sleep.

Next day is spent in weapons practice, finishing tanning the fine hare fur, and repairing his leather  clothing in preparation for tomorrow's trip south.

[JEB Davis]

It takes an entire day to walk south to the shelter and the drying meat. About 500 paces away from the shelter Mik encounters a bear! Hiding, Mik tries to get a clear shot but the bear moves into the spruce trees. He stealthily tracks it for a while but can't see it, and then hears a "Roar!" and decides maybe today isn't a good day to be surprised by an angry bear in the close confines of the spruces.

After sneaking out of the bear's area, he continues to the shelter and finds fresh lynx tracks nearby. The meat is almost ready, so Mik waits with bow at the ready for the lynx to appear. The sun goes down and Mik sleeps "with one eye open" until morning and there are no new tracks nearby.

In the morning while doing some woodwork, the lynx appears. Mik grabs his bow and misses it with a broadhead arrow. He knocks another and pursues but can't get a close enough shot.



Mik passes the time making javelins and fishing with one of them, keeping an eye out. He spears a pike and roasts it. Now he collects the bounty of dried meat and offers the best cut to the spirits.

It's late afternoon and getting dark so the shelter will be home tonight.

[JEB Davis]

With no further sign of the lynx, early morning sees Mik heading west with 15 pounds of dried reindeer, exploring until night falls. Nothing of note is seen and he spends the snowy night on a lonely hilltop next to a solitary birch.

[JEB Davis]

On the trip back home, Mik sees a large glutton, but misses it with an arrow and it is too fast to chase.

Then he has a brief encounter with 5 or 6 wild sows, which scatter and run. Mik is more interested in getting home and really doesn't need more food anyway. Almost back home, with the sun going down, he surprises a small ermine and kills it with one lucky arrow.

Next morning, snow is falling thin upon the ground on the shore of Pain Summit. Hearing some commotion to the south, he finds 3 black grouse in his loop snares and retrieves them. He also has the ermine skin tanning and then works on some sword and mace practice.

Life is good now for Mik... with a dozen dozen dried meat cuts, plenty of goods and furs.

[JEB Davis]

After a couple of days back home...



It's time to journey east and check the drying meat from the bear that had wounded the adventurer. The weather is colder now and Mik adds a fur overcoat to his regular travelling gear; it's almost as heavy as his lamellar cuirass and will take some getting used to wearing. His other equipment is the same as he usually carries... 

[JEB Davis]

During the journey, Mik spies a glutton off in the distance in a frozen mire so he drops his gear and sneaks forward with only bow, arrows, and knife. His arrow misses and the beast runs much faster than Mik, out across partially frozen swampland. He dare not follow and break through the ice.

Arriving at the adventurer's shelter by midday, he finds the bear meat is not finished drying. While deciding what to do, a squirrel comes near... and becomes dinner. Mik waits for the drying meat to be ready and passes the time making some wooden bowls. Visiting the nearby Owl village he trades 5 bowls for 1 arrow and some roasted meat.

The trip back home is uneventful and there is a black grouse trapped.