Ukko’s Saga

[mostlyjustgoose]

Went looking through my documents folder and found this account of a save I played about two years ago. I’m still proud of it, so I decided to share. No mods, “Shelter in the Wilderness” start, no challenges—I was just having fun with this one.

Ukko of the Seal-Tribe, though small in stature, is a patient fellow.

He began his adventure by finding an abandoned camp, where some other hunter had left a small knife and a wide trident. Though the first bitter days of early spring left him a little frostbitten, he was soon able to construct a cabin to sleep in and bring down an elk to make himself warmer shoes. His first spring was spent fishing and trapping birds, but once the ground thawed enough for pit traps, he dug a few in the woods and was rewarded with three forest reindeer. Their meat, once smoked, sustained him for months to come.

Much of his first summer and autumn as an independent man was spent smoking meat, tanning hides, and clearing land for building. After his first building, a sauna (and smoker), was finished, he moved on to creating a bigger cabin to live in with an adjacent cellar, then a wide space to plant crops and a fence to enclose it. Near the end of his first independent winter he finished his third building, a storage cabin.

When a wounded adventurer gave him the location of a treasure of kiesselais origin buried between three adjacent boulders, Ukko was undeterred by the fact that the ground was frozen at the time. Instead he marked the location well, spent his winter hunting elk and forest reindeer, and returned in the spring. His fortune was made—though the adventurer called it “casual wealth”, to Ukko it has seemed a king’s ransom. After all, it’s not every day one comes into possession of thirteen superior winter furs—seven of them bear furs!

Five of the superior winter bear furs remain in Ukko’s sleeping bunk. Perhaps someday he will find a northern spear of better than rough quality, or possibly mail armor. For now he is content to sleep on the soft pelts, listening to his two reindeer cough to one another in their pen. (The first reindeer he bought was killed by a lone wolf; both pelts still adorn his bunk.)

Twice he has slain robbers who encroached on his tribe’s territory—once vagabonds, then sartolais—and twice he has slain bands of robbers on his travels. Though each time he has been bloodied and battered, he limps back home to make bandages from the clothes of the dead, and spends a few weeks in his cozy courtyard tending to rows of growing barley.

The most recent encounter came in the middle of a long warm summer. The worried inhabitants of a village told Ukko of robbers in the southeast of the Seal-Tribe’s territory. Ukko tracked them down in the woods within two days, wandering in the forest with his spear and arrows jangling on his back to attract attention. The three ruffians who attacked him were dispatched after a bloody fight that left Ukko with many serious cuts and punctures, but also with reassurances to bring to his tribesfolk that they would be able to hunt and wander in peace. The thankful villagers gave him a credit of 100 squirrel hides’ worth of goods, and Ukko left with a masterwork northern bow, three grey seal furs, and a smile on his face.

His next winter will likely be spent traveling. South to the islands, to trade furs or looted weapons for precious salt. North to the coast, hopefully to find seals for the first time. East to meet other cultures and perhaps clash with Njerpez. By spring he may have a sheep, or even a dog to share in his adventures. And he daydreams sometimes that a veteran hunter may take him aside and tell him the secret of how to meet forest maids!

*

One afternoon, wandering through the woods, Ukko came across a traveling fellow tribesman. With envy he noticed that the other seal-tribe hunter carried a northern spear—the very thing he had spent his first year looking for—and would not trade it away.

They were alone in the woods; the other man had no dog. The nearest village was miles away. No one would have known, and seeing as the spirits had looked mildly on his killing robbers, he didn’t really fear spilling blood. Ukko’s own ancestors, from some of the stories he had heard as a little boy, had not been afraid to take what they wanted out in the wilds.

Nevertheless... Ukko felt sick at the thought of killing someone unprovoked. Even if no one else would ever know the truth, there might be someone at a settlement who would miss him, someone who would wonder what happened to their friend or brother. And Ukko would always know that his spear was a trophy of murder. No, he couldn’t kill someone who wasn’t trying to do him harm. He walked away, and the two never saw one another again.

Later that season, Ukko met a vagabond hunter in the stretch of territory north of Sartola. The man had among his possessions something so rare even Ukko had only ever seen one as a child—a hunting horn! Even in the richer towns Ukko had never found one. The hunter gladly parted with his horn in exchange for some tasty smoked meat and a pair of Ukko’s bear fur mittens.

Ukko felt a kind of strange elated relief after this meeting. True, he had chosen not to do things the easy and quick way as his ancestors had, but his patience paid off.

*

As his second real winter settled in, Ukko had a run of strange luck. His settlement was comfortably situated an equal distance away from both Sartolais (to the south) and Seal-Tribe (to the north) territory, and between both territories he was able to trade a few spare weapons and furs for a sheep and a pig. Best of all, though, he now had a dog named Lumi, who soon happily set about devouring the pile of animal bones in Ukko’s courtyard.

While replacing spoiled bait in several pit traps, Ukko came across an elk and killed it—two hundred and eighty pounds of meat just in time for drying, and the first winter fur of the season. However, while he was tanning the elk fur, a lynx attacked him from out of sight, savaging his left elbow with its fangs. Though he lost the beast to the dark of evening, he was able to stop the bleeding.

A few harsher furs, at the bottom of the great plush pile now accumulated on his bunk, would become bandages. He would nurse this wound until the weather fully turned to winter. Once the rivers had frozen over and he could strap on his skis again, he decided, he would set out with his two reindeer and his faithful Lumi. He hoped, as soon as his arm had healed enough, to improve his skill with a bow a little.

Still Ukko dreamed of learning more spells and rituals from the villagers he visited. They were grateful for his help in fighting off robbers, doing chores, and carrying messages, and two of his tribesfolk had taught him about meeting the Old Man of the Waters and the Spirit of the Forest. He had met both of these with a humble and open heart, and both had appeared before him with gentle faces. Both these things filled him with wonder.

And yet... this would be only Ukko’s eighteenth winter, and his second as a man living alone. When he’d lived in his family’s homestead, close to a village, it had always seemed that the true mark of a real adult was their knowledge of the spirit world. Now he lived with only animals and the spirits for regular company, and often felt that there was still a world of knowledge evading him.

As Ukko’s elbow healed, he took the opportunity to trim the thick spruce woods at the edges of his settlement for a fourth cabin. This one would be a proper sauna, with space to sit and relax, free of the overpowering smells of the smoker cabin. True, the smell of smoking meat was a reassurance that he could survive another few months, but it did make him feel a little less refreshed when he tried to use his sauna for its intended purpose. At any rate he had a clear space and enough spare logs for a cabin. Why not make his life a little more comfortable?

By now his lonely settlement looked very cozy. After the fourth cabin was built, Ukko decided, he would let the woods around the settlement begin to creep back in. Already he had a fenced-in garden for vegetables, grains, and herbs; the four animals had their own grazing pen, and there was space to make an enclosure for Lumi as well. His living cabin would now be surrounded by a smoker, a sauna, and a storage shack.

(Sometimes he contemplated teaching himself more complex skills: carving combs, spinning flax and wool, pulling iron from the earth. But there was a kind of contentment in living a simpler life, even if it meant he had to trade for certain things instead of being entirely self-sufficient. Perhaps one day one of his children or grandchildren might learn such skills.)

Cutting trees proved a slow and difficult process with his elbow still badly hurt, so Ukko leashed one of the reindeer and packed it with trade goods. Lumi also trotted along beside him as they set out north into Seal-Tribe territory.

He traded the three grey seal furs he’d bought for a masterwork spear, and his first winter elk fur for some fine broadhead arrows.

Ukko’s luck, it seemed, all came at once—good and bad. He came across a bear and managed to kill it without its claws or fierce fangs ever touching him. Butchering the beast was a difficult job with his left arm still injured, and he had to pause halfway through to sleep.

In the middle of the night Lumi’s frantic barking awakened him. A wolf had snuck into the camp, probably attracted by the smell of fresh meat—and, even as Ukko watched, it snapped the reindeer doe’s neck with its fangs. He rushed at the beast with his new masterwork spear and quickly brought it down, but he had lost one pack animal, and Lumi had been wounded in the skirmish.

As he tanned the thick soft furs of bear, doe, and wolf, he let Lumi eat his fill of the catch before setting all the meat out to dry. It only seemed like a fair reward. Within a day Lumi looked far better, and they set out south for home again.

A brief wander northeast of his home territory—a little round section of spruce forest known as Nightcliff—brought him into the path of wolves again. Though this time he had left Lumi at home to recuperate, he threw himself into the fight, and brought down one of the pack while the rest fled. Though he didn’t mind the abundance of furs, Ukko hoped the rest of the winter would bring him easier hunting, as the wolf had taken a few bites out of him on its way down.

[mostlyjustgoose]

His elbow healed, as did the few shallow bites from the fight with the wolf. He tired of trimming trees from the edge of the settlement, and loaded up his reindeer stag with goods to trade before setting out to wander.

Ukko moved northeast first, going from village to village to see if anyone had any work for him. At the eastern end of Seal-Tribe territory he found a village harboring a wounded adventurer; this unfortunate man had also been savaged by a wolf and had lost the trident he inherited from his father. The spirits must have been on his side, smiling on his decision to be kind to his fellow man whenever possible, for the search was a quick and easy one. As his reward Ukko received a sword lesson.

*

As soon as the rivers and lakes had frozen solid, Ukko began to range further southward. For the first time he visited the villages of the Driikilais, the Kiesselais, and the Kaumolais. Though the goods they had to trade mostly held little interest to him, he did note that the Driikilais villages had cows and bulls. These were far scarcer up north, and for a moment Ukko pondered bringing one back to the farm.

The call to roam was far stronger, though, and he continued on his way. East, ever eastward, to the edge of Kaumolais territory—to within sight of a Njerpez camp.

As a child, Ukko had heard many brave adventurers who passed through the settlement talk about the Njerpez. They were said to be vicious warriors, strong and with deadly swords. More than one woodsman had described a companion—human or animal—cut down by one of these barbarians.

This was, he decided, a task for more than one man to tackle. Robbers he could handle alone, but not these sorts of bandits. He continued north and began to loop back to the west, taking a meandering path home through Owl- and Kuikka-Tribe territory.

Not far from familiar Nightcliff, however, he ran into another adventurer. At first he thought the man might merely be someone lost in the forest cover, but as the stranger swore and drew his sword, Ukko realized—he was face to face with a wandering Njerpez!

The fight was fierce. The Njerpez managed to deal a deep cut to Ukko’s right eyebrow, very nearly biting into his skull; with his northern spear Ukko retaliated, stabbing the man in the chest while Lumi leaped up to bite him. Together Ukko and Lumi brought down the Njerpez, finishing him off with a blow to the neck; the man’s dog ran forward to avenge his master, but a single strike from Ukko’s spear dispatched it.

He was badly wounded, but the barbarian’s goods were his, and he was able to limp home to his settlement with his spoils. The fur of the barbarian’s dog was added to the pile of furs in Ukko’s sleeping bunk, even as he took out a few more furs of lower quality to make bandages. Midwinter was still two weeks off; he would spend some time recovering, using a precious herbal healing blend given to him in his first year of independence to make certain he didn’t lose the sight in his eye.

Lumi feasted well on the meat and bones of the dog that had tried to kill him.

*

The blend of healing herbs, carefully portioned, did their work swiftly. The wound over his eye stayed clean and closed quickly, leaving his vision entirely unaffected. Though the temperature dropped and the winds became bitter, he and Lumi stayed warm inside the main cabin.

Ukko had built a trap-fence with a row of pit traps at the edge of an open mire in the spring, half a day’s walk east from the settlement at Nightcliff. The pits caught him two elk less than a week apart—one a yearling bull. In thanks for the bounty and the good fortune of his healed eye, Ukko sacrificed the first cut of meat from both kills to the spirits before drying the rest.

It was now early Pearl month, with deep drifts of snow as far as the eye could see. Already Ukko’s thoughts were turning towards how he would spend his late winter and early spring. The sauna building at his settlement was half done, and on impulse Ukko dismantled a wall of his sleeping cabin to convert to a second door. (This door opened directly out to the fenced-in cellar, where he also dried much of the meat he caught close to home.)

Ukko knew that before the next winter arrived, he wanted to have a pair of woolen mittens to wear beneath his elk fur ones. The pair of woolen footrags he’d bought in Sartola earlier in the season had made all the difference in keeping his feet from being frostbitten; now he needed to ensure that his hands would be equally warm at the bitterest time of year.

He also wanted to dedicate some time to foraging for herbs. There were plenty of seeds in his cellar—barley, turnip, clayweed, rye, nettle—but he wanted to build up a store of the healing herbs he could not grow. Ukko knew all too well how quickly an injury could reduce his capacity to do anything, and wanted to be ready for the next major one, if he could.

First, though, he had to take advantage of the weather before it changed. He could dry meat and tan furs at his leisure; the pile of pelts on his sleeping bunk grew ever deeper and thicker.

He did make a brief excursion north, to see if he could find any seals while the ice along the shore was still thick. Wolves found him, and though he wounded several he brought down none and drove off the pack altogether.

*

Soil month found Ukko’s cellar respectably stocked with dried elk meat. Over the winter he’d brought down at least five elks; though he’d traded away one of the furs for some broadhead arrows, still the pile on his sleeping bunk stayed deep and warm. By now he reckoned he might even have enough preserved food to throw a feast at one of his favorite northern villages! It would certainly keep him well-nourished for months to come.

Though the furs he collected were no longer as thick as they were in the dead of winter, his skill in hideworking was improving. Now more often than not he could make a fine quality fur from a carcass.

In hauling the meat from an elk hunt back to one of his shelters for drying, Ukko once again ran across a pack of wolves. Fortunately only one of them stayed within his line of sight, and was easily isolated from the others. Its fangs tore Ukko’s neck before he managed to drive his spear into its skull; not long afterward he cut the beast’s pelt up for bandages.

*

The south-eastern corner of Seal-Tribe territory had another bandit problem. Vagabonds this time—and, according to the one hunter who had fled their clutches, six of them.

As good as Ukko had grown at fighting, he knew he could not take on six grown men alone. So, after a brief jaunt back to familiar Nightcliff to pick up Lumi and his reindeer stag, he hired a pair of his tribesmen to join the hunt with him. Knowing the injuries they could sustain might be severe, he paid them each with a whole forest reindeer’s worth of dried meat. And why not? He could afford to be generous.

By now the woods of the south-eastern Seal-Tribe lands were becoming somewhat familiar. So too was the act he used to bait the robbers—jangle his equipment, sing merrily, and pretend to be unaware of his surroundings as he wandered. Soon enough Ukko spied armed men making their way through the trees.

Without hesitating he fitted a broadhead arrow to his northern bow and shot one of the robbers dead where he stood.

The ensuing battle was long and bloody. Ukko’s shortsword—a masterwork bought from a foreign trader—sliced one robber nearly in half and bit deep into the flesh of others. His companions fought fiercely, with fangs, antlers, spears and knives. Beneath their feet the snow ran red.

At last Ukko struck down the last of the robbers. Though wounded, all of his companions were alive. Only one had sustained a truly serious injury: the hunter Heige had been struck in the hip with an axe. Ukko stripped the robbers’ bodies of any clean clothes to make into bandages, so he could tend the wounds of those around him, before he loaded up the stag with their weapons.

Ukko and his other human companion, Heiadnu, carried Heige between them back to the village where they had been set on their quest. Though he’d already paid Heige well, Ukko felt guilty. Spring was approaching and the man had a long recovery ahead of him. A month’s worth of meat scarcely seemed like fair compensation.

When they reached the village, Ukko wasted no time in taking Heige and Heiadnu to the shaman for healing. The woodsman who had told him of the robbers, Jonne, pulled him aside and asked in a hushed tone what had happened; just as quietly Ukko informed him that the ruffians robbing their people were no more.

Relief flooded Jonne’s face. He almost seemed younger with the worry lifted from his mind. At once he promised Ukko could have a hundred squirrel hides’ worth of the village goods.

Ukko held up a hand to stop him.

The other two men now resting in the sauna, he explained, had done as much to defeat the robbers as Ukko himself had. Neither of them had gone into the fight with armor, and now they faced at least several weeks’ recovery. He asked Jonne that the reward instead be split between his companions, so that they could re-provision themselves before they could hunt again. It was, he felt, the least he could do.

Jonne agreed, but insisted on presenting Ukko with a lynx fur from his own storage as thanks. Graciously Ukko accepted it, and bade farewell to his companions—though he returned a week later to present each of them with fresh elk meat from his newest kill.

Side note: I know you can’t redistribute your reward in the game, but I felt so bad for the poor guys that I did in fact give them meat and bandages, among other items. The lynx fur was a purchase with the squirrel hide credit in reality, but in the unreal world of Ukko’s story, it was all the reward he accepted.

[mostlyjustgoose]

Swidden month was cold, but prosperous. A wild boar stumbled into the pit trap closest to Ukko’s settlement; his mouth watered as he hung its meat out to dry. While the leather tanned, he went northwest to check a pit trap he’d dug just inside of Seal-Tribe territory, and was rewarded by the sight of a big bull elk. Its carcass yielded almost four hundred cuts of meat—with the first set out for the spirits, of course.

A second elk stumbled into a pit trap an hour north of his settlement. After tanning the fur and hanging out the meat to dry, Ukko found himself wondering whether he should consult the spirits. They had blessed him so far with bounty, and he wanted to make certain he was behaving properly towards them.

Late in Swidden month, he approached the anthill at the northwestern corner of his settlement, and in the dark carved a few shards off a silver bracelet into the nest. With his heart in his throat he waited for the spirit to approach.

Ukko was sleepy, having spent a long day finishing the tanning process, but he found himself wide awake under the dim moonlight as a pale figure faced him. He seemed to be all silver himself, with his grey beard and hat and his lichen overcoat. Ukko scarcely dared to breathe—until the old man smiled.

In a voice like a warm wind in the branches, he murmured, “Set your traps and wield your weapons, for there is an elk in the north-west for you.”

Another elk! Ukko couldn’t help but remember the early days of his independence, scrounging for whatever little food he could fish or snare, nearly freezing and starving. An elk had been his salvation then, and it seemed that even now the spirits intended for him to remain well-fed and warm.

As Ukko bowed his head in gratitude, he resolved to make some sort of shrine to whatever spirit governed the elk, thanking them for their favor.

*

Summer! This year the snow melted quickly, and the world once again began to bloom in a thousand shades of green. It was a relief to take off the heavy burden of skis and bear fur coat and cloak.

With no major building projects at the settlement and a fresh crop of turnips planted, the first weeks of summer were spent tanning the hides and smoking the meat of several more elk caught in his pit traps. There had indeed been one in the north-west, at the very edge of his settlement: another yearling bull. Ukko laid the first cut of meat out gently for the spirits, this time in the middle of a small nest of elk antlers he had fashioned into a shrine of sorts.

He also recalled well what he had learned the previous year from the fisherman who had taught him how to see the Old Man of the Waters. As soon as the ice on the nearby lake melted, he brought a pot and a handful of things from the cellar down to the shore and sat down to fish. His very first catch went straight into the pot; he remembered the man telling him that boiled fish would do as well, but Ukko decided a proper soup was in order for this first ritual.

Just as the fisherman had instructed, he left the pot of soup on the shore for the spirits to taste, and then left the lake shore to tend to some chores at home.

Remembering the ritual also made Ukko recall that he hadn’t spoken to any of his tribesmen since the winter. He made certain the smoker was hot enough for two days, then traveled up into his tribe’s territory to visit the villages.

Right away, one of his friends greeted him warmly—and with the news that a wounded adventurer had crawled into the village. Iskko was the stranger’s name, he learned, and he had been attacked by a wolf. His spear was lost (a northern spear, the very kind Ukko had not been able to find in more than rough quality for trade), and in exchange for its return he offered the location of a treasure.

Ukko’s heart raced. The last treasure was not yet exhausted—four bear furs, a wolf fur, and a forest reindeer fur, all of the finest quality, still decorated his bunk. Who knew what he might end up bringing back this time?

The spear was found easily enough. The treasure proved a little more elusive.

For one thing, Ukko was delayed in making a serious search for it. Somehow a wolf snuck into his settlement and killed his pig and reindeer stag; in the fray the animal pen was left open, and the sheep escaped. But worst of all, the wolf lunged for Lumi’s throat—and, in an instant, Ukko’s most faithful companion was gone.

Furious, Ukko beat the injured wolf to death with his spear.

Though he hung up the wolf’s meat, the pig’s, and the reindeer’s in the smoker, he buried Lumi’s body at the foot of a great stone, where he could soak up the sun as he had done in life.

He was too distracted by his loss to notice that he had failed to skin any of the carcasses he’d butchered. He wasn’t even particularly dismayed when the second treasure turned out to be much smaller than the first, though still quite valuable. He simply missed Lumi, and would have to readjust to an entirely solitary life.

*

That summer was the richest yet. There was no need for Ukko to hunt: elk and forest reindeer stumbled into his pit traps regularly, and several foxes found their way into his paw-board traps. And, perhaps best of all, one day as he was chopping firewood he saw a small white figure come trotting through the trees. His sheep, which he had believed lost forever, had wandered home.

She seemed more than pleased to be back in her pen again. A few days later, when a wolf crept into the settlement to try and snatch her up, Ukko shot it down where it stood.

His large garden produced an absurd amount of turnips (some of which he fed to the sheep). His cellar held enough preserved meat for two village feasts. Though he traded away several furs for a precious silver ring and some foreign weapons, his stash of fur at home was nearly four times his own weight.

Near the line of pit traps he had dug to the east, he found a stranger wandering, desperately lost. Ukko still remembered how frightening his few weeks totally alone had been, and brought the fellow south to a Sartolais village. In gratitude the man taught him a charm for catching foxes.