Vadistokli Arkun (in 5236 BC)

Returning to my series of continuum campaign notes. Clever readers will notice a few things odd about this place. Players from my campaign will remember a lot more happened here. Experienced Continuum GMs will recognize the Midwives' Crisis. That will all have to wait for a future post...

-5236 - March 20th at 12:00 noon - Central Europe - Geminid - Vadistokli Arkun
Mentor corner in the european lowlands at the foot of the Russian Steppe. Playlist: Fantasy Exciting

When you arrive: You are standing in a large bowl-like impression in the earth, surrounded by a wooden pallisade. Half a dozen other people are there, sitting, standing, or leaning against the palisade. All are dressed in primitive furs and leathers. All but one of them is missing a hand.
Have you beamed into a prison?
All the people stand up, that’s when you notice that two of them are twins. Everyone says in unison with very broken english. “Hell-Oh. Whot Tyme Iz It?”

Their leader is Ervyin. He’s a span 3, and is not missing a hand. This is his corner, where he trains those he’s saved from the hand-stealers. The main village is several hours walk from here. This is a bowl-like depression with a spiraling pallisade wrapping 3 times around it. You can’t physically walk from outside to inner bowl. But you can enter the spiral, getting out of sight of levellers, and then span to the middle.

Travel to the village takes you past multiple megalith stones.

The village is a collection of mud huts surrounded by a ditch and wooden pallisade with geminid symbol carved into poles. It only takes a few moments observation to notice two main points: Firstly, at least 30 of the 100+ inhabitants are missing one or both hands. Secondly, nearly everyone under the age of 30 has a twin.

About the hands: A couple times per year they are attacked by “the hand-takers”, fierce nomadic horsemen who kidnap villagers. Their leader, named Borik, removes a hand from each captive, cauterizes and bandages the stump, and then sets them loose near the village. Ervyin doesn’t understand why. Borik appears to be a spanner, as some of the handless ones have witnessed him span.

Fun things to do with primitive people, in primitive times.

• Hunting & Wrestling
• Toppling megaliths with Ervyin’s corner. Working against the hunt of the sun.
• Music or pottery. Clay whistles. rock & wood percussion.

Before you leave: Clothing and woodworking tools will be waiting for you in the pallisaded bowl.