( Unknown POV )

"Login successful. Diagnostics indicate all brain patterns are bound within acceptable parameters, and all systems are functioning normally. Preparing user for awakening. Cracking the case in fifteen seconds.

Hah! “He’s hot, blowing the pins in five. Tube shows green, cycle complete!”

Welcome back to reality, sir! All indications are that the tribe is meeting your expectations, Huron."

"Of course, Lux. I keep reasonable expectations."

I spend my first few minutes doing a quick set of stretches, embracing my inner calm. This fulfils multiple necessities. The simulation of physical exercise gives me a better feel for my current digital body - it’s a compilation of abstract physical perfection, as taken from Italian Renaissance sculpture. I got it off an obscure model database. You’ve probably never heard of it. The deep breathing helps clear my mind, helps put me in the right frame of thought for long-term planning, and to make sensible, statistics-based decisions. Finally, the specific movements of my routine unblock my chakra, allowing the free flow of ki throughout my body, and ensuring spiritual well-being.

Thus centered in myself, I call up Throughout the Ages and look down into my home clearing, above the hollow. Far below, some of my younger hunters are preparing for a hunting excursion. Business as normal.

"Anything to report?"

"Nothing major, sir. The ward-rune we put down for vision of our northern border, with the humans, seems to have deteriorated. It will need to be replaced. In addition, some of the hunters have reported strange occurrences near the burned clearing."

"Oh?"

"Strange sounds. The smell of burnt flesh. A general sensation of fear. One of them claims that he spotted a goblin following them whom he didn’t recognise, although we found no tracks."

I sigh, and gently rub my temples, before forcing aside my irritation. This requires calm. The burned clearing is a real headache, though. We failed to ambush a bunch of elves there. A costly failure, but a valuable lesson: Goblins are significantly weaker than I had expected, even in ambush, and using my advantage of numbers is key.

And now, it would seem, the tribe is developing superstitions about the place. A troubling development.

"Hmm. Not much to be done about that at the moment. Perhaps the Medicine Man might be of some use in this situation? He has some magical affinity, perhaps we could use it to… allay the tribe’s fears. An exorcism, or some equivalent."

"We could try, but I advise against it, sir. His stats don’t fit for a witch-doctor; you decided he was more valuable as a healer. It could backfire."

"Yes, I know, and he may still come in useful. But you’re right, it would be foolish to waste him or the necessary points when the clearing is doing such minor harm. Speaking of which, how are our points doing?"

"We are steadily advancing towards our objective, without any great surprises. Even with the drain we experience from our active buffs, I predict that we should reach it in three real-time days."

"Good. Show me the list of current tribal blessings."

Tribal Blessings

Way of the Hunter

(50 points activation)

(15 points yearly maintenance )

The tribe will produce more and better hunters.

The position of individuals in the tribe is determined by how useful their contributions are to the Hunt.

* Hunters get better training and equipment.

* Increased attraction to the hunter profession.

* Increase in hunter stat growth.

Proof of Power

(40 points)

(no maintenance)

Those who have physical trophies of their accomplishments will hold greater power within the tribe.

* Trophy-carriers will hold higher positions in the social hierarchy.

* Tribe members will prioritise tasks that produce trophies.

* Trophies give small bonuses to stat growth over time. (stacks)

At the beginning of this game, I noticed something that I doubt many others did: if your tribe gets wiped out, you have the option of taking over a second from a list of the AI-run tribes. Obviously, mid-game this would leave the player massively handicapped, but early-game it’s probably recoverable. As such, I decided to try a high-risk, high-reward strategy, and go for an early-game-cheese play. Thus the goblins: High birth-rate, high aggression, high adaptability, high-survivability, but low skill-ceiling and slow advancement. Perfect. And if it all went to hell, I could try again with a more circumspect strategy.

Currently, I’ve not had the enormous successes I’d hoped for, but nevertheless my tribe is thriving and the potential remains. Buying “Way of the Hunter” early has allowed me to steadily increase my forces and start harassing nearby players.

It seems to be working, as I’m not only producing more hunters, but my attrition rate is much lower, resulting in my units being more skilled. It’s a short-term strategy, of course, but that’s what this run is all about.

Even so, I’m struggling to make much headway in combat. Goblins are just too weak for my purposes. The war party I sent up against the humans failed, which I had accommodated for, but the flanking party failed to deal any damage to their camp. Annoying, as I’d hoped to slaughter their elderly and children, thus removing much of their support systems. The strategy won’t be a surprise, next time, either.

The wolfkin are even worse. I take eight-to-one casualties in every skirmish against them, it’s utterly unsustainable even for goblins. Fortunately their tech-progression is even slower than mine, but it leaves me currently vulnerable. My current strategy is to use traps, which is a big drain on resources but is comparatively safe. The success-rate is abysmal, but it’s enough, and it seems to be whittling down their numbers a little. It also made ‘Proof of Power’ viable, what with wolfkin being farmable for fangs.

Shame it causes infighting. Still, it all grants useful experience for the victors, which is surprisingly handy, and the trophy bonus stacks to great effect. Varnuc, the ‘Headman’, is becoming a very valuable unit.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Close the Tribal Blessings panel and bring up the Member Blessings panel."

Varnuc

Leadership through Force

(20 points)

Your Leader rules the tribe with an iron fist. All dissenters are either strictly disciplined or outright killed. Fear is an excellent motivator, however, and weaker members of the tribe can respond well to a strong leader.

* This person has bonus persuasion against anyone physically weaker than them.

* When following orders from this individual, other tribe members will work harder and faster by a percentage correlated to their relative stat-difference.

Kali

On the Line

(35 points)

The line between madness and genius is very thin. This individual can make anything out of anything, much to the confusion of everyone else.

* This individual learns and discovers at a highly accelerated rate.

* However, they are incapable of passing on knowledge to individuals without this Blessing.

Unending Effort

(10 points)

Blessed with the need to keep himself busy indefinitely, this person can keep working for hours on end.

* The individual one can keep working for longer without breaks, and suffers no penalty to efficiency or accuracy.

Respect for Knowledge

(natural development)

The need to know burns in the mind of this individual: they will instinctively seek out sources of knowledge.

* The individual will instinctively know whether an individual posses knowledge he doesn’t.

* Treats individuals with respect entirely dependant on the amount they have to teach him.

* Individual prioritises finding sources of knowledge.

Ah. My other problem.

Kali came to my attention as the first member of the tribe to learn ‘simple chitin crafting’. Useful, if not overly impressive. When looking for a member of the tribe to start buffing to produce higher-tier gear, he was the obvious choice. ‘On the Line’ was perfect for the job, given that he was never intended as a long-term research role, but simply as a short-term expediency. ‘Unending Effort’ helped flesh out the role.

Then he randomly picked up ‘Respect for Knowledge’. That was a real problem. It’s a decent trait, if you’re looking for a trader to pick up tech from other players - it’s probably really useful on centaurs, for example - but it completely fucked over my build. It gave him a motivation to leave the tribe, and over-buffed him into the built-in leaving condition. Double whammy.

I get the sharp twinge of an oncoming migraine at the mere thought, and I clench my teeth. Fucked over by the RNG. Overall, an enormous waste of points. Fuck!

A deep breath. The headache does not recede. I take a moment to order Lux to plug a painkiller into my bloodstream. Even in the simulation, I feel the sharp scratch of the pod’s needle plunging into my arm.

The headache fades. The anger does not. I force it aside.

Kali produced some good gear before I lost him, at least. The leadership headdress he produced is pretty good, amplifying Varnuc’s leadership skill, allowing him better control over our ever-growing horde. A couple more epic-tier items like that and it might have been worth the investment.

"Lux. Tell me, Varnuc... could we put another blessing on him?"

"Yes, but I would recommend waiting for the tribal blessing we planned, sir. Currently the Headman is content with his position, but I’m concerned we might lose him, too, should we over-extend. We don’t know where the blessing threshold is."

"Any news on Kali?"

"Unfortunately not."

Damn it all. I’d hoped we might still catch him, but it seems he’s lost permanently.

In any case, Lux is right. We’ll invest in another Tribal blessing.

Far more predictable. More controllable.

None of this ‘emergent behaviour’ RNG bullshit.

"Master, we have visitors."

I close the Blessings UI to find a party of humans standing on our home ground, in the clearing that is my stronghold.

It seems my adversaries have made a move.

----------------------------------------

How? How did this happen? What did I miss?

"Lux! Give me data! NOW! Were the tribes cooperating? How did they find the hollow?! How did all of the tunnels collapse? WHAT HAPPENED?!"

The rage writhes within me, my muscles tensing and twitching. Damn testosterone pump. When I get out of the pod, I’ll be bruised from fighting the pod’s restraints. The fury is disrupting my balance, blocking my chakra. I need control. I need calm. To think.

"I’m sorry, sir! I just don’t know! The first thing we knew about this was when they walked into our camp! It’s uncertain whether the humans and wolfkin were working together, although it seems statistically likely! We don’t know how they found the hollow-"

"Enough! If you you don’t know, don’t witter, damn you! And none of this “we don’t know” shit! It’s your job! What do you know?!"

"I’m sorry sir! I’m sorry! What we do know is that a whole bunch of our minions, including the Medicine Man, suddenly went offline as ‘traitors’, right when everything went… um… wrong."

I blink, processing the implications. I can still see the clearing in front of the hollow, my viewpoint floating above it, but the game won’t allow me to move around or zoom out. In the corner of my vision sits the ugly pop-up informing me of my failure, angrily waved aside when I read it.

Defeat

Your tribe has been defeated by a great alliance of tribes, the greatest yet seen in history.

Defeat. And the devs are just rubbing it in. Damn them!

No! Calm! It is my mind, my self-discipline, that will bring me vengeance!

I almost manage it, too, before I spot the traitors, down in the clearing.

"There, sir! The traitors!"

Lux points with one of his paws towards a spot below. Kali and Gordune, talking to the humans. A fifth column! Betrayed by my own tribe!

Strangely, though, I’ve reached a level of icy clarity. Now I have something to work with.

"Lux, store as much data as you can regarding our attackers. They will pay.

And then… Well. Back to the plan. Bring up the new tribe creator."

"Processing data and prepping for storage."

A New Start

Your previous tribe was defeated. You may now begin again a tribe with a value equal to the standard starting values plus 30% of the total value of your previous tribe, as calculated at its all-time height.

A set back, and one I’d planned around. Nothing more. Although I will have my revenge. Brought down by multiple opponents, working together? Dishonourable tactics. But then, victory is what matters, and three can play at that game...