"Brother."

"Brother!"

"I see them, too, little sister."

The diminutive young woman who had spoken to her older brother continued to stare intently into the distance.  Clothed in furs, hooded in the same, she carried a war club slung across her back, and a bone-tipped spear in her hand.  Crude, bone and sinew snowshoes adorned her feet.  Her long, dark hair drifted from beneath her hood, and her mien was that of a mere stripeling--albeit set and intense under the circumstances.

And those circumstances could prove dire.  A group of humans were following her, her brother, and their two tribal companions through the deep snows and bitter cold of the Tuttuagaurat Nunavik tundra.  Such an occurrence generally boded ill, and in this case...their pursuers were likely a hunting party from the cannibal Johka Nub'be tribes.  No others would venture forth in this, the long season of cold-before-the-short-warmth, without good reason--and the reasons of the Johka Nub'be were seemingly based on terrible rapacious hunger, unmitigated cruelty, and vicious aggression.

The young woman, Pirkko, glanced again at her older brother.  "So what shall we do?"

Her brother Mikka smiled slightly as he regarded his younger sibling.  "P,", he replied, lapsing into his habit of using his childhood nickname for her, "Do they appear to be closing on us?"

"...No", his sister replied hesitatingly.  "But they..."

"Good.  Then we keep moving.  Our tribe is dependent upon our success in obtaining the old-fire wood from the Upeametska.  If those who pursue us draw near, we will have an accounting then."

Pirkko nodded, somewhat reluctantly.  She idolized her older brother, and was fiercely protective of the rest of her family, her friends, and her tribe.  Her mantra, unspoken and implicit, was that no harm would come to any of those she cared for.  Her protectiveness could provoke out-of-body rages, with her quickness, strength, and sheer ferocity belying her stature and wrecking havoc on her enemies.  This tendency, almost unique in their small tribe, had convinced the elders to assign her to the task of obtaining the old-fire wood--along with three other companions.  The assignment was crucial; without sufficient fuel for heating and cooking, the tribe would perish.

"Mikka, I know what you say makes sense, but I still..."

Mikka smiled again at his little sister.  "When have I ever guided you wrong, and when have you not been a mama bear protecting its young when danger arises?  Trust me, little sister.  If those who pursue us close this distance, we will have a reckoning."

In reply to DM (msg # 1):

In spite of Mikka's canniness and cognizance of the frigid wilds, he and his tribe did not have a thorough understanding of the Johka Nub'be--the Rivermen.  In part, this was due to the traditional predator-prey relationship that the Rivermen maintained with Mikka's tribe...the Rivermen would raid Mikka's tribe--killing, taking hostages, and seemingly eating some of them.  Mikka's tribal warriors would occasionally venture into the Johka Nub'be lands, to be near the river Eatnu during the great salmon runs.  During such times, they shared the river banks with grizzlies, dire otters, and less nameable creatures...all focused on capturing and consuming the millions of fish spawning or migrating further upstream.  During those times, the mortal dangers were many, but chief among those threats were the Rivermen.  They had their weapons, and their dogs, and would hunt down those that they perceived as intruders and prey.

Mikka knew about the dogs.  He did not know that they could pull sleds over the snowy, icy tundra--his tribe had no such relationship with dogs or any other animal that could be placed into harness.

He, his sister, and their companions Luska and Vikuska found themselves facing down Rivermen who had, rapidly, caught up with them on their dog sleds.

In reply to DM (msg # 2):

A flurry of combat ensued, as the Rivermen attempted to kill or subdue the four companions.  Pirkko wielded her war club with sheer ferocity, falling into a raging fugue that felled several Rivermen.  Her brother, Mikka, played his role in defending the group.  The sorceress Lusa handily disabled some of the Rivermen using her mystical powers, aided by the druid Vikuska.

All Rivermen were dispatched at the close of the short, brutal melee.  Ironically, the surviving Rivermen sled dogs were not able to be convinced to accompany the four companions...and returned to the frozen tundra to either make their way back to the to the Johka Nub'be, or to chance the frozen wilds as feral creatures.

A looming, smoking mountain--surrounded by dark fir trees.  The Upeametska--home of the forest ghosts, wood goblins, and the critical old-fire trees that provide fuel, warmth, and the ability to cook game and other viands during the long, long, dark months.  The smoking volcanic cone was north of the tribe's traditional encampment sites on the tundra, but the presence of the towering mountain seemed able to transform bare and desolate tundra into dense, gloomy, but nonetheless richer tiaga forest.

Other creatures were also drawn to these demesnes.

Upon nearing and then passing within the forested fringes of the taiga, the party was assaulted by an elemental spirit of the frozen realms--a mephit of the ice and desolate, cold, and lonely lands that span the multiverse.  Acting swiftly, the party was able to destroy this elemental being, but suffered some minor injuries in the process--and all injuries in the dire cold of the dark months of Tukisangitok have the chilling effect of being very, very debilitating.

The party advances further into the taiga forest, passing the light taiga fringe with its pines and larches spaced so that lines of sight are not too obscured...into the dark taiga closer to the smoking volcano that still dominates the skyscape through the tree canopy.  Once inside the closed canopy of fir and hemlock trees of the dark taiga, however, all sight of the sky is lost.  Under the tree canopy, the twilight conditions of the tail end of the Long Dark season become virtually pitch dark.  Carefully husbanding small, burning fragments of old-fire wood that some of the party members brought for illumination, the group makes their way under the dark, dense conifers.

Small, vicious, and menacing--and accompanied by a fur-clad and lumbering figure towering over them--wood goblins descend upon the tribal companions as they move further into the taiga forest. While the wood goblins are relatively easily dispatched by Mikka and her companions, the hulking goblinoid figure with its bone axe was able to wreck havoc among the party members.  Nonetheless, the companions are able to put down all of their foes...and leave with the much-needed old-fire fuel for their tribe.  Resources brought back to the tribe included the weapons and furs of the Rivermen, and the paltry leavings of the wood goblins and their overgrown kin.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:56, Sun 04 Feb 2018.

Upon the triumphant return of the young tribal companions with the old-fire wood and some other resources, the older members of the tribe breathed a collective sigh of relief.  The short Melt season was coming, and the supply of old-fire that the youngsters had procured was more than ample to take the tribe through the next Long Dark.  The immediate future of longer days and returning birds to the thawing tundra wetlands and upland, moss-and lichen-covered stones appeared bright.

So why was the elder tribal shaman so concerned?  The signs boded a mixed Melt season, with fortune and misfortune inextricably bound together.

Then the Rivermen came, stealthily and under cover of the short dark of the early Melt season.  They came, and made away with young tribals--principally girls.  They vanished into the tundra, leaving little or no sign of their passage or presence.

Once again, the companions were called upon to perform a daunting and seemingly impossible task:  proceed into the Johka Nub'be territory to defeat their traditional enemy, rescue kith and kin, and return alive.

The Melt season was already off to an auspicious start.