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« on: April 16, 2018, 10:45:35 AM »
The following is a story of Ossi.
It was my first winter alone since I escaped from my Njerpez captors. You see, I had cleared their camp earlier in the spring and used it as my homestead, remaking two of their buildings into my own cabin. My homestead was then a central camp with my cabin and sauna with a pine mire to the north and east, all surrounded by spruce mire. I had ringed my homestead and border of the spruce mire with a contiguous trap fence and staked trap pits. In the months between then and mid-winter, I had explored and become friendly with local villagers: trading for many goods I needed, helping them with chores, traveling between regions, and even finding a bird thief.
In those travels, I had encountered numerous Njerpez warriors wandering the forests, especially near my homestead. More so even than I had ever heard of. I had had numerous encounters, and almost perished a few times. Because of this, I often wore my best armor and was armed as I traveled around the forests near my homestead.
One morning near mid-winter, I checked my trap fence and found a lone small wolf caught in a pit. I killed, skinned, and butchered the animal, offering up a gift to the spirits for this bounty. I set the meat to dry and tanned the fur. I came back and picked up the rinsed winter wolf fur and took it into my cabin to finish at my table. I had a decent fur at the end, was weary and moderately fatigued, and it was evening. So I decided to add the fur to my sleeping pallet and rest. I decided not to re-kindle the fire that night and was about to lay down on my furs against a cold winter night ...when I heard my door open.
Confused, I was about to look to my door when I was hit from behind and felt something break in my thorax. I turned and I was being attacked by a Njerpez Warrior holding a mace! He was in my cabin! He had apparently scaled my fence, snuck across my homestead, rushed into my cabin, and attacked me, all in the darkness of the night as I was finishing a fur. I wasn't wearing armor and had no weapons, so I grabbed a handaxe nearby and fought the intruder.
I had little hope of succeeding against this enemy with my fatigue and wound, but I struck back against his blow to my shoulder and luckily hit him in the abdomen, which wound began to bleed. I think he was shocked that his first strike didn't knock me unconscious and I was fighting back. After that, I chopped my axe against his skull and he dropped dead. I was stunned at my survival!
I gathered my weapons quickly, searched my homestead in the darkness, and found this intruder was alone. I was left with a major fracture in my thorax, a dead Njerpez next to my sleeping pallet, and bloody gore marring my peaceful cabin. I felt as if my home was violated. If there was only some way to secure my cabin or bar the door. I don't feel as safe as I did before this invasion. It is a blessing I was awake. One more moment, and I would have lied down and the Njerpez warrior would have found me asleep. I am truly lucky.
Note: In all my years of playing URW, I've never encountered so many solo Njerpez warriors in such a small geographical region. They've given me a fairly steady stream of goods for trade. But I've also never had a Njerpez invade my cabin directly. I've found them in tiles adjacent to various characters' cabins, but this is the first time I've ever had this type of experience. It scared me to death. I was literally shaking by being surprised by a Njerpez in my own cabin. I was sure my time invested into this character was about to be flushed down the tube, but was genuinely happy to survive. I also wonder if it would be possible to bar a door in a building. This would require the invader to break down the door with an axe to get in, but would give some defense against home invaders.
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