Ozark Playtest

From The Fifth World

Contents 1 Characters and Players 2 Session 1 2.1 Foraging 2.2 Tracks 2.3 Berzerking a boar 2.4 Visiting the totems 2.5 The attack 2.6 Ogolai's battle 2.7 Dandelion's battle 2.8 Meeting at the tree 3 Session 2 3.1 Calling a council 3.2 The band sets out 3.3 Tracking the bugbear 3.4 Making camp 3.5 Where's the Kibikwa? 3.6 Strike 3.7 Capturing the bugbear 3.8 Waki's chase 3.9 The Kibikwa talks 3.10 Return to the village 3.11 Bugbears attack 4 Session 3 4.1 Return to camp and tell the story 4.2 Geru's (of the Bugbear Society) quest 4.3 Body in the water 4.4 The camp 4.5 The shamans

[edit] Characters and Players

Character	Archetype	Player
Storyteller	n/a	Story woven by entire group but lead by Luke
Ogolai the Mongol	Shaman	Luke
Dandelion the Hare	Scout	Rix
Waki the Bear	Brave	Fogleman
Snora	Brave	NPC
Yosaro	a Kibikwa outcast	NPC
Sawes	Brave	NPC
Saso	Brave	NPC
Nasus the Heron	Shaman	Susan
Haku the Turtle	Iconoclast	Richard
Geru	a member of the Bugbear Society	NPC

The foreigner Ogolai visits the young scout Dandelion to seek his help in foraging for some mushrooms. While they prepare to trek beyond the village, they overhear a conversation concerning some bugbear track seen over the next ridge. The two decide to investigate while they forage.

[edit] Session 1

• Characters: Ogolai, Dandelion
• NPCs: 5 Bugbears

[edit] Foraging

Dandelion takes Ogolai to a place where he has known mushrooms to grow before. They gather some Common Large Psilocybe and then take a look around for the place they heard where some bugbears might be.

[edit] Tracks

They spot the bugbear tracks, and start tracking them. They are surprised to find not one set of tracks, but five! The tracks prove very easy to follow, as the bugbears show no intent of hiding their presence. Eventually, the trail shows that the bugbears noticed a set of boar tracks and began to follow it. Dandelion and Ogolai speed up their tracking and arrive at the scene where the bugbears have encountered the boar.

[edit] Berzerking a boar

Ogolai and Dandelion hide themselves at a distance and watch in a clearing as the five bugbears encircle the boar. The Anayok watchers are very interested to see what will happen, as they never thought before about the possibility of the bugbears hunting.

To their amazement, the bugbears rush in at the boar, wielding spears made with fire-hardened tips. They madly swarm the boar, flailing around and stabbing it mercilessly and repeatedly with loud grunts of their own. When the berserk has finished and the boar lies bleeding and decimated at their feet, the ravenously tear into the corpse and begin feeding on the boar's organs and meat, knocking each other aside to get at the best parts.

After filling themselves on boar meat and blood, the bugbears fall down around the corpse and sleep, uncovered out in the open. Ogolai and Dandelion take this as an opportunity to silently slip away from the bugbears and find a nearby place, out of earshot, where they can discuss what they just saw.

[edit] Visiting the totems

After eating (did they eat pemmican or did they kill something?) Ogolai and Dandelion decide to visit the spirit world and seek guidance from their totems. Ogolai determines the dosage of psilocybe that they will need and leads them into the spirit world.

Dandelion speaks to his totem, the fox, who offers him this advice concerning the bugbears: "Run in. Strike hard. Disappear. In this way, you will find victory against their numbers."

Ogolia's totem, the eagle, offers him similar advice "Swoop down from above. strike with your claws and fly away."

[edit] The attack

Ogolai interprets the message from his totem to mean that he should climb a tree and shoot arrows from above. Dandelion interprets the message from his totem to mean that he should run in close enough to shoot his spears at the bugbears and then run away. After sharing their messages from their totems with each other, the two agree that attacking from different positions would give them the best chance of breaking up the focus of the bugbears' return attack and prevent themselves from being berzerked by the bugbears' wrath. They know also that the chances of killing all of the bugbears is pretty scarce and that they would likely have to run for their lives. So they decide on a rendezvous point further away from their village, so as to make sure the bugbears do not follow them back to their people.

Dandelion hides in the bushes near where the bugbears are sleeping while Ogolai sneakily climbs a tree nearby. However, in the process of climbing the tree, Ogolai makes a noise which wakes one of the bugbears. The bugbear charges Ogolai's tree, but Ogolai is able to shoot it in the eye and thus immobilize it. As the others awaken from the screams of the wounded bugbear, they quickly begin to scramble after Ogolai who is trying to get out of his tree. Two of them charge Ogolia, and Dandelion swiftly dispatches a couple of spears with his atlatl in order to protect his friend.

With the chaos from Dandelion's attack, Ogolai has enough time to get to the ground, but now the bugbears know where both Anayok men are. Ogolai and Dandelion run off in separate directions, each being pursued by a pair of bugbears.

[edit] Ogolai's battle

Ogolai twisted his ankle, trying to get out of the tree and is not able to escape very quickly. Eventually, he realizes that the bugbears are almost upon him, and he turns to fight them. He shoots an arrow and misses the first one. His next arrow finds its mark and kills (?) one of the bugbears pursuing him. The other one, however, is undaunted by his friend's death and still charges at Ogolai with his spear raised.

Ogolai crouches to his knee and launches his last arrow. It misses the bugbear who then launches his spear at Ogolai. In one fantastic move, Ogolai uses his dexterity to dodge the spear and then pulls his knife from his belt and stabs up into the bugbear's abdomen as it comes charging down on him. With a spin and one final cut, Ogolai drops the bugbear dead at his side.

Ogolai then takes the scalps and spears from the two bugbears he has killed. He searches for any of his arrows, but the only one he finds--the one that killed the chasing bugbear--is damaged beyond repair.

[edit] Dandelion's battle

Dandelion runs swiftly through the forest, listening for the sound of the bugbears behind him. He realized that he has outpaced them quite a bit, and he turns back to see if they are still pursuing him. He comes up on one of them and uses his last spear to disable it. Now that he has no more of his own spears, he takes the bugbear's crude spear to use to protect himself.

As Dandelion examines the spear, he sees that it is not tipped with a stone or bone point as the Anayok use. Instead, it is merely a shaft that has had the end placed in the fire to burn part of it away. The burn part was then scraped to make a crude, fire-hardened point. Dandelion is familiar with this method of spear making. An Anayok may use the same technique to make a spear in a pinch when he has no bone or stone at hand to make a better tip. He will not be able to launch this spear with his atlatl, but he can still use it to defend himself against the other bugbear that was pursuing him.

Dandlion backtracks further to find the other pursuing bugbear. It is limping slightly as it returns to the place where it had slept the night before. Dandelion circles around and waits hiding in the bugbear's path. With a confident yell, Dandelion springs from his hiding place and strikes at the bugbear with its pack mate's spear. Dandelion is surprised at the bugbear's strength as it tries to resist death, but in the end, the spear finds its mark in the bugbear's heart and it falls dead in the path.

Dandelion retrieves the spear, takes this bugbear's spear and scalp and returns to where he had killed the previous bugbear to take its scalp as well.

[edit] Meeting at the tree

Dandelion returns to the tree and awaits his friend. He has no idea that Ogolai injured his ankle, so he is somewhat surprised to see his friend limping into the clearing. They recount their successes to each other and then decide to go back to where they first attacked the bugbears to see if they can find the first one that Ogolai shot in the eye.

When they get back to the spot, they do not find the bugbear's body, and it has become too dark to search for its tracks in the myriad tangle of signs that indicate the struggles that took place earlier in the day. Eventually, the pair decides to return to the village to tell of their adventure and to warn the camp about this strange occurrence of bugbears traveling so near to their village.

[edit] Session 2

• Characters: Ogolai, Dandelion, Waki
• NPCs: Snora, Yosaro, Bugbears

[edit] Calling a council

Ogolai and Dandelion return to the village with their trophies of bugbear scalps and spears. They raise quite a commotion with their story, and one of the village mothers calls a village council to discuss the situation of bugbears so near to the village.

The council decides to sent Ogolai and Dandelion back after the wounded bugbear to track it down and try to figure out why it was so near to their village. They recommend that the party remain small, but suggest that at least a few others go with the shaman and scout in case they run into more trouble. Waki and Snorali, both braves of the bear clan decide to go, as does Yosari, a generally quiet character who speaks with the strange northern accent of the Kibikwa--from whom he was outcast. Assuming that he wants to prove himself to raise his prestige in the village, the others welcome him along.

[edit] The band sets out

Having used up all his own spears fighting the bugbears, Dandelion offers Waki a trade: bugbear spears for atlatl spears. Dandelion knows that the brave takes great pride in his weaponry, and he hopes that he can trade these tokens from battle for some good tools. Waki accepts the trade and offers him six flint-tipped atlatl spears for the four bugbear spears.

Meanwhile, Ogolai has traded for some obsidian and takes a moment to speak to the spirit of the stone and receive a good flake from the obsidian in order to make a very strong and powerful knife.

With their new weaponry and companions, the party sets out for the place where they left the wounded bugbear for dead.

[edit] Tracking the bugbear

Upon returning to the place where they had first attacked the bugbears, Dandelion spots the bugbear's trail and succeeds at following it. The trail leads off over a mountain, away from the village and down into a valley. Before they descend into the valley, Dandelion notices from the pattern of tracks that the bugbear appears to be searching for a place to rest and that they are very likely very close to the place it chose to rest in. He quietly tells Ogolai of his findings, and they decide that they should find their own place to camp, far enough away from the bugbear's bedding spot so that they don't run the risk of alerting the bugbear--or of having the braves see the bugbear and attack immediately, as Dandelion and Ogolai hope to follow the bugbear farther to see where it might lead them.

[edit] Making camp

Upon finding their own place to camp, the party also finds some fresh deer and chicken tracks and decides to get some fresh game for dinner. The little clearing in the valley where they have chosen to rest is lush with wildlife, and they soon have quite a few greens as well as a chicken killed by Waki.

Waki prides himself on his cooking skills and cooks up the meat lovely and mixes the greens into a delicious salad.

[edit] Where's the Kibikwa?

All of the sudden, everyone notices that the Kibikwa is gone. Nobody remembers seeing him leave, and nobody is sure how long he has been gone. They begin searching around the camp for possible tracks (as the Kibikwa stitch their moccasins with a different pattern than the Anayok). Eventually, the come to the place where Dandelion suspected the bugbear was sleeping, and they see the Kibikwa hunched over the bugbear's body on the ground. They hear something that sounds like quiet mumbling.

[edit] Strike

[edit] Capturing the bugbear

[edit] Waki's chase

[edit] The Kibikwa talks

[edit] Return to the village

[edit] Bugbears attack

[edit] Session 3

• Characters: Ogolai, Dandelion, Nasus, Haku
• NPCs: Snora, Waki, Geru

[edit] Return to camp and tell the story

Upon returning to camp with the trophies from the Bugbear's body and the Kibikwa bound and carried on a stretcher, the party tells of their adventure.

Two people who were not at the first telling of the Bugbear story by Ogolai and Dandelion, find themselves very interested.

[edit] Geru's (of the Bugbear Society) quest

Geru, a Deer in the Bugbear Society, pulls Ogolai and Dandelion off to the side after they tell their story to the rest of the village. He indicates that they have each almost killed enough bugbears to gain entrance into the society. Then he asks for their help: visit the next village to the south, from which they have not heard in quite some time. Come back with news of the other village and any bugbears they find in the area. If they prove themselves well to the society, then they will be initiated into the society at the rank of "Bugbear Slayer", taking both the blessing of an initiate and of a slayer for themselves.

Dandelion decides that, since the bugbear presence seems to indicate some impending trouble for the village and his tribe, he will seek to prove himself to the society so that he may share in their resources in fighting this enemy.

Seeing how interested Haku and Nasus were in their story, Ogolai and Dandelion approach them after speaking with Geru. The two newcomers decide to join the party to visit the neighboring village. Waki and Snora also decide to come along. The party leaves the Kibikwa spy with Geru and the Bugbear society and departs.

[edit] Body in the water

Haku hears a waterfall whose voice comes and goes. He decides to investigate and discovers a body in the water, face down, dressed in skins. He tells the others what he has found, and they all come to investigate.

Haku decides to swim out to the body to see what he can determine, but the current catches him and pushes him into the body which dislodges. Both Haku and the body are then carried over the waterfall.

Dandelion throws some cordage out to Haku who grabs onto it with one hand and holds onto the body with the other hand.

The party looks at the body. Its clothes resemble their own. They surmise that this may have been a member of the neighboring village, but they cannot tell how he died.

Ogolai, senses that the spirit has already left the area, so they decide to leave the body where it is after Ogolai sings a prayer for the departed in his native tongue (which sounds rude to the rest of the party.)

As the party moves on downstream, Dandelion determines to find the man's family in the next village so that they can come get his body and grieve him properly.

[edit] The camp

Dandelion spots deer tracks, and he and Haku track it. Dandelion kills it with his first spear cast. While Haku butchers the deer, Dandelion gathers plants. Haku makes a wonderful stew with the deer meat and the plants. Snora especially likes Haku's cooking.

[edit] The shamans

While the others are tending to the camp, Ogolai and Nasus visit the Overworld.

• Ogolai helps Nasus shapeshift into owl form.
• Nasus (in owl form) helps Ogolai shapeshift into eagle form.
• Ogolai discovers a pack of bugbears upstream from the body.