You are seventeen. You have left your people to see what lies south: a river valley running from the hills to the sea. Other peoples live there. You will see their smoke by day and their fires at night.
Live off the landFind the places where food is thick: hazel groves, salmon riffles, mussel beds. Dry and store food for winter. Let snares and weirs work while you sleep.
Find the othersClimb hills to look for smoke and firelight. Walk in with a gift. Or leave goods at a marker stone and see what comes back.
Trust is the real storeYou can live alone. But fair trades, gifts and kept promises turn strangers into friends. Friends feed you in bad years. Friends become family.
Your name
The story calls you "you". Your name is how others know you.
How you were raised
When you set out
Valley seed
How to live here
Days
Each day has daylight hours (short in winter, long in summer). Walking uses hours. Any food or work action uses the rest of the day. The night runs by itself: you eat, sleep, stay warm or don't.
Moving
Click the map to walk there (it may take days). Arrow keys or WASD step one km. Hover a place to see what food it gives this moon. Turn on the Food lens to see the richest places you have explored.
Food
Plants are steady. Deer are a gamble: rare, huge, and they rot in days unless you dry them.
Nuts (Hazel Moon) and the salmon run (Hazel to Leaf Fall Moons) are the big harvests. Store them.
A drying rack at camp dries fresh meat and fish for you. A storage pit keeps animals out.
Snares, a fish weir and a net bring food in every night, if you stay within 2.5 km to check them.
Winter needs a hut, hide clothes (3 hides) and a big store. Late winter is the hungry time.
People
Look for smoke by day and fires at night: open hills see farthest. A signal fire calls people to you.
Walk into a camp with a gift. Then trade, give, ask for news, ask for help.
Each band values things by its own needs. Trade what is cheap for you and dear for them: both sides gain.
Fair trades build trust. Hard bargains cost trust, and the bands gossip. Giving more than you take puts them in your debt: they remember and repay.
Keep promises. Help them in their hungry seasons. Friends feed you in yours.
Hunting on another band's land without leave angers them. Ask for rights, with a gift.
Trust 50+: they shelter and feed you. Trust 55+: someone may court you. Every summer the bands meet at the Gathering.
Keys
Arrows/WASD walk · Space repeats your last job · Enter ends the day · L food lens · +/− zoom