Just some thoughts on and about the bear hunschen. This is mostly done as a question session, so when people disagree, you can easily take any alternate view, and change the world viewpoint of your Rathori. YGWV.
Rather than a major conflict to start - such as can I survive the winter - may I suggest a scene or two setting minor conflict prior to this.
In terms of storyline - I think Back to the Future does this well. Marty riding his skateboard to avoid being late for school and playing his guitar in the first scenes sets him up for his heroic feats of "Invent" skateboard, "Skate away from Biff (all incarnations) and others" and "Invent" Rock and Roll. But the story is all about getting his mum and dad together, looking after his family, and becoming the people they become, but it would be much less without the action sequences.
So I suggest first at least one minor conflict after they wake, before going to the first major one (how do we survive the winter) for scene setting and buildup. The minor conflicts I suggest are to stress the life viewpoints of the bear people - eg the ancestors are real - how do I contact the ancestors - where are they now? What are the other spirits of the forest or guardians which can help as well as those that hinder?. How do I get them to help me. Do I bully, cajole, offer gifts or do I have to fight - are they friendly, neutral or foe (and why?) - each is probably best to vary. Though it is best that not all be done before the major conflict. More questions after the great starting points which I thought were really worth repeating.
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HQ voices, which is a great start:
<http://www.btinternet.com/~nick_brooke/voices/hqv_rathori.pdf>http://www.btinternet.com/~nick_brooke/voices/hqv_rathori.pdf
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Winter is Coming
How did I get here. Just thinking like this: Rathori->Harrek->White Bear->Spirit of Winter Survival->Warriors who survive the winter-> (Driven mad by the winter - a post by someone on this list I liked-> All dead(maybe ;-))->Harrek killed White Bear->No winter guardians
I then set the time to autumn because this forces action - something
must be done now. It also gives us the Salmon Run, which gives us the
opportunity for social gathering, npcs etc. which provide for a good
vein of sides to the conflict.
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Nice scene setting. But then may I suggest you can now throw it back. Either to the just now or even the just before.
The just now - the Rathori are just waking up and have yet to discover any of these truths or apparent truths. The answers which they initially get may seem true but can actually be inherently wrong or just misleading.
Or for a scene setting just beforehand, it could be that the Rathori are just about to go asleep for the "winter" and a child comments about the small saplings they planted in front of their cave last spring to help hide the cave in the upcoming winter. A great clump of trees blocking the entrance/exit could certainly explain (at least at the purely physical level) why they survived unmolested during their slumber. And then they wake to the just now .
And not waking in the spring, but in autumn, would certainly be even more disconcerting.
With the hunschen, where and how do the spirits of the ancestors, forests, stream, fit in with their current predicament? What happened to them? The hunschen survived hidden - perhaps some of the others are also still hidden.
I actually didn't mesh with the thought of actual "people warriors" of the White Bear as guardians staying awake contrary to the rest of the bear sleeping culture. I'd rather suggest Spirit Bears and other spirits as guardians during the hibernation - including the ancestors? - which wake the sleepers in time of danger. Would Spirit Bears not normally need to go to sleep over the winter because they no longer have need of food? This isn't stopping most if not all of the guardians from having gone though.
I'd like to think they have at least one guardian spirit left - the covering wind - the wind that blows the snow and leaves over the trails so that their slumber holes could not be found... though the covering wind - now so weak after not being honoured has all but blown its strength away.
Asterix does one thing very well - everything at least ends with a feast if it doesn't start with gathering food for one - a foray mission to espy the land for a feast to honour and strengthen the remaining guardian(s), and to celebrate the awakening from the winter sleep. Which also enable the PCs to find out what else is still there, what is missing, and that which is just a little bit different..
Perhaps the "tree grove" helped them survive _if_ there is now a settlement relatively close by on the river. Since it is a river, why not make it something stranger - a small duck settlement. So that not all players need to be strictly Rathori, but so they can explore the Rathori through non Rathori viewpoints... An elf as a forest dweller might also be found nearby, but both an elf and a duck would "approach" the Rathori different. The elf knows they were here before ? knows they were sleeping, but the ducks - what are you doing staying near our place? Could the Rathori act as the mediators between the elves and the tree needing ducks? Or just standby as the savage iron wielding humakti ducks slaughter the unsuspecting elfs in combat.
And taking in the perspective of a bear hunschen I think it proper to pray to the ancestors to look after their descendents while they slept - they knew how - they survived their winters...
Some flavour text may be good - of how things fit into the world according to the Rathori viewpoint, and also as possible clues as to where and how any guardians or clues to where the guardians may be found. Do the spirit bears/warriors chase and consume the spirit salmon? Are the salmon which are alive getting fewer in number since the spirit salmon aren't getting eaten by the spirit bears and reborn?
Perhaps a later remaining (but now even hidden itself) spirit guardian also helped hide the Rathoris' spirit guardians in the otherworld.
Or even if it was physical warriors as guardians, could the hunschen now get their spirits/ancestors to look after them, or tell them where the warriors went to get them back? Where and how would they find them? Or if it were the ancestors who were some of the guardians, can the ancestors now be contacted - do they want to be contacted? Did any elves help them - are they on that friendly a basis?
What would help find the ancestors - an old holy relic - which has been stolen. Cliched, I'd admit. Back to the Future does it better - they already have the relic (the Delorean) - it just needs fuel. And this plot device is used successfully time and time again (pun intended) by varying how they have to get the fuel - using already stolen nuclear fuel, lightning strike, recycled garbage, and then they need something else... Do they need the duck shaman to swim in the spirit rivers? This would be _after_ they have already encountered the duck shaman (or other suitable plot artifact) so as all meshes in.
Are their ancestors, bear and other spirits really (and simply) peeved at not having had any offerings for years (irregardless of whether they themselves slept or not) - the darnedest things annoys mums, dads and grandparents) or had they already woken _last_ spring or earlier. You try explaining to your parents - I slept in but it wasn't really my fault, when you don't think or know you have actually overslept.
IF the great bear is unreachable, can they reach any or all of his other companions or their other protectors?
How do they appease the upset ancestors? Who do they blame AND punish? Trickster of course - no matter what form - animal or even human (or duck) form- may I suggest finding one and punishing one will please the ancestors at least a little. Always blame the trickster - a good scapegoat. It was certainly because of the trickster, not me, that this happened. What is the traditional Rathori way of punishing (but not killing*) the trickster here? May I suggest bees and honey, or if you really wish to make many non barbed points, may I suggest wasps and honey.
What has happened to their relatives in other (ahem) "caves"? (I am deliberately using another term rather than the human term clan to highlight the differences of how they think of themselves and their social groups). This may be something best done - and the new campaign issue - that can be addressed when they wake up next spring after they have secured their own caves survival over the winter. Are they now alone? Should they go looking for, and protect the others if they are the first to wake? Does another cave also wake and try to take over another sleepers cave? But approaches your cave looking for a wife. Does your cave help or oppose. And you later find a Rathori cave which actually woke earlier than themselves - when you are trying to find a wife for your clan (finding a wife is a tried and true and successful plot device - life goes on) but is later found out to have done some dubious deals that don't appear to honour the white bear or the ancestors. Are marriages within the cave forbidden due to matriarchal or patriarchal bloodlines or both?
What, specifically, of the elves in the forests - did they sleep all this time as well. Evergreens - I'd say not, but deciduous - I'd say yes.
Did something at the mythic level have to make their resistance roll against the closing - and failing - fell asleep. And the Rathori failed? What about other creatures - who didn't hibernate - did they automatically succeed or did some fail and some didn't? And the Rothari took a great negative due to the fact they slept and some actions of an opportunist called Harrek.
One thought that arose from this - if results occurred at the mythic level - it interestingly implies the closing also had otherworld effects - perhaps Harrek simply found the white bear god napping. His critical against the result of the others fumble? The Rothari plot to destroy Harrek, and prevent the bear god from having lost...
(Go Ian!)
ttfn
Brian
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