Moon: Trakya

Craggy forested hills dominate the moon of Trakya, rising to broken mountain chains and descending to calm blue-watered seas dotted with small islands and rocky outcroppings, both shrouded with mists. Within the forests and shore plains, there is an abundance of game - several types of deer, goats, wild pigs - together with their natural hunters - bears, wolverines, weasels and mink, together with true wolves. Further up in the mountains, the game is dominated by goats - ibex and chamois - and larger predators - primarily bears and true wolves. Shoals of fish teem close by the shore, with small sharks and dolphins common. Rumours of larger creatures persist, with rare sightings of whales, smilodons and giant horses.

Several significant Karuantii settlements and places of repute exist:

• Arnufur - Hillfort settlement in the shadow of a mountainous ridge, known for its iron and early morning mists
• Fenreis - Great Hall settlement deep within the forests
• Golmorr - Great Hall settlement at the edge of the forests and close to the shoreline
• Ruins of Kailesh - Ancient cliffside town, half falling into the sea and surrounded by wild woods. Rumoured to have been beset by a sea serpent and now claimed by Ulfur as his seat
• Valley of the Moot - Sacred valley high in the mountains where the Karuantii meet in the summer months
• Waymeet - Large settlement built within the pass leading to the Valley of the Moot, cradled within two great walls at each end of the pass itself. All who travel to the Moot must pass through Waymeet

People: Karuantii (or singular, Karuantus)

Large hominid wolfmen, the Karuantii are a tribal people who live in loose territorial Packs. Some Packs are sedentary, settling in a communal hillfort, hall or cavern complex; others are nomadic, travelling between the hunting grounds in a broader territory and trading pelts and meat with the settlements. Both are ruled by their Thanes, though the sedentary Packs tend to be matriarchal and the nomadic ones patriarchal, who are supported by their Skalds, Torc-Bearers and Great Smiths.

Outside the Packs, there are lone Wanderers and the Fellhunters. Of these the Wanderers are trying to prove themselves as hunters, or smiths or storytellers; they travel between the packs, seeking their place in the world and sharing news - tradition has it that they should be offered fire, meat and salt for three nights but no more - unless they are invited to join a Pack. The Fellhunters are more glory-bound, small packs consisting entirely of male Karuantii and adolescent true wolves, packs whose focus is hunting and war; often they will be on the trail of a great beast, travelling wide ranges that cross the territories of many Packs, but on occasion, they will raid for supplies or food.

Every summer, Karuantii gather in the mountains for a Moot: here they trade stories, metalwork, pelts and Pack members - with those coming of age partnering with those from other Packs, or vying for adoption into one. All are welcome, and these are rough-and-tumble affairs, with feats of strength, challenges and fights to submission common.

Warmth.

Mostly nocturnal, the pack slept in heaps, centered on their leader, Ulfur. Stirring from sleep as the last rays of the setting sun shine through the cracked seaward wall of the main chamber of the Ruins of Kailesh, there was not a concern in the world.

Save for your empty belly, of course, and the sound of pups tusseling over whatever scrap they'd manage to sniff out. Those two - Ylva and Ubbi - were always fighting.

And there was your 'rival' of sorts, the wolf-lord of Waymeet - Aethelwulf, the far-traveller, the pocket-king, the wyrd-hunter, first-daughter of true-wolves. She alone had never challenged you when you had taken the seat of the Lord of the Moot. Many thought that she had declined to challenge you because - while she could have bested you, perhaps - she saw you as wiser, and had accepted you from the start on those grounds. She was reserved, and so her true reasons were unknown.

Ulfur stretched until his spine cracked, revelling in the feeling of wellbeing that came from waking surrounded by packmates. As the rough and tumble of Ubbi and Ylva spilt close to him, he mock-growled and swatted both of them tail over snout until one of his other Fellhunters. As was his way, he rose swiftly and strode to the seawall, watching the sun's light fade and scenting at the salt of the spray that crashed against his domain.

With the last dying light, he turned and spoke softly to the others who had begun to stir, "We hunt. And then I will work the forge; I have a gift to make"

Faolan, Gerwulf, and Ivalo were the first of the Fellhunters to rise with you, and they in turn quickly got the others awake and up to speed.

Faolan was a younger wolf, but your best tracker;

Gerwulf was older and had survived many hunts that gone poorly. His right arm still didn't quite work right ever since a stray kick form an elk had broken it. His hard-earned wisdom was valuable.

Ivalo was strange, and heard voices that weren't there, but he had a rage within him that terrified challengers.

Along with five true wolves - two of which worked closely with you, the other three each preferring one of the above Karuantii - your usual hunting party was ready. Ylva and Ubbi would stay behind, along with your favored cook and two Karuantii still recovering from recent wounds. It was enough to hold down the fort.

"We could fish, and fill our bellies," suggested Faolan. "Or if you are wanting to hunt, I have seen many tracks of deer - and the den of a bear, still sleeping this late into the spring." It was, as usual, your decision what to hunt. Democracy had value in large groups, but with your hunting pack, your leadership was direct and unquestioned.

"Deer", laughed Ulfur easily as the others gathered around him, standing easy, their grace clear, "If we can, I would take a stag, for their meat and their rack"

Apologies for the pithy post, long day

Deer it was.

The pack trotted out under cover of darkness, their eyes shining where the light of the moon caught. A gentle breeze brought -

- moose, deer, rabbit, man-thing, badger, owl, fox-kill, carrion birds, camp fire -

- the scents of the area to you. Already, you had a general sense of how to begin. Faolan took point, with you at his back. Ivalo and Gerwulf were behind you, and the true-wolves followed behind.

At a swift lope, you arrived within a mile of the deer in fluid moments of leaves and old tracks, flowing under shadows more than moving over them.

Wordlessly, the pack dispersed into triads and duos, each of you taking a true-wolf or two and surrounding the deer as they stopped to drink from a fast-flowing river bursting its banks from spring thaw.

Ivalo howled from the left, and the deer froze; Faolan answered from the right. With the river as the third boundary, the four deer - a buck, a doe, and two fawns - sprang the way they had come - into you and Gerwulf.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:34, Sun 13 Jan 2019.