Part 55: Keeping Active

Chapter 8: Keeping Active


Hero’s Hut



Excuse me, but would the Laibon be adverse to a second meeting?

*The guard bars your entry with his spear.*

I guess so. I’ll just wander off to the left, then.


A spear throwing range, eh? Interesting.


Greetings, Nike. How do you like our village so far?


Uhura’s Theme

I’ve still barely had the chance to see it, though I will admit you know how to throw a rousing party. I presume that this is a throwing range?
Yes, this be the place where the Simbani practice throwing spears. No Simbani warrior will ever use a sword, since you cannot very well throw a sword in battle.
Well, technically you can, but it’s generally ill-advised.
Throwing spears be much easier. Want to try?
Um, well, I’m not really the “throwing” type.
Ah, so as they say in Shapeir, you “throw like the girl?”
I’ll have you know I can aim Flame Darts perfectly well.
Whatever you say. Let me show you how a Simbani girl throws.


Impressive.
To hit your target with the spear takes both strength and throwing skill. You can build up your strength through practice, but you will be needing to use your brains to improve your throwing skill. You need to be using your head to judge such things as how high to throw a spear so that it falls to the target and how much strength to be using. Once you figure those things out, you need to learn to adjust for the wind and throw a little ahead of a moving target. It all takes a good deal of practice to master spear throwing [Luckily, having a high Throwing skill will make the hero compensate for all these things automatically]. The target out there be made from the hides of animals. For practice, it does not move. During the initiation contests, it is pulled back and forth to make the contest more difficult.
Initiation contests?
To become a Simbani warrior, a youth must undergo a series of initiation tests. When several youths are ready, the initiation becomes a contest. Spear throwing be always a big part of initiations.
So wait, only one youth can become a warrior at one time? That seems inefficient.
Oh no, all youths with enough skill become warriors. The winner gets to ask a boon from the Laibon.
I suppose that might interest me if I were at all inclined to physical activity.



Ooh, ooh, can I try?
Go right ahead.


The “use” icon (hand) turns into a spear while you’re throwing spears. Thanks to the imported character, I have no trouble hitting the target, although it doesn’t exactly go where I point yet. If it were freshly started, I would have had a much better chance of hitting the wall behind and the dirt to the side.



Well, the range sure looks exciting, but I think I’ll be moving along now.
Very well. Kwa heri, Nike.


Welcome, Prince Nike. Uhura be telling us that you soon here. I am Yesufu.
Greetings, Yesufu. So what do you do around here?


I am the son of the Laibon. I am also a very good Awari player. That is the game you see before me.
Awari? How is that played?
Come closer and I will show you. We will play for fun, since you have no cattle.


Awari

Awari (Oware) is actually a real game (and one that’s popular in Africa, no less), part of the Mancala family of games. In spite of the name, though, “Awari” actually plays more like Kalah, with a few notable changes. There is only one free move per turn, you have to add stones to your opponent’s home if you pass it, you can capture stones by landing in an opponent’s hole, and remainder stones aren’t counted at the end of play. Yesufu is a much better opponent than the old Chief Thief from QfG1, so I usually win about half the games I play with him. Oh, and you also get different topics while talking to Yesufu when playing the game.

So how’s life as a Simbani?
The Simbani are a roving people. This is only our home for the season. Usually we will move soon to another village, where our cattle can graze on fresher grass. This year, though, we will be staying here until we win the war against the Leopardmen and regain our Spear of Death.
How do you even know that they’re the ones who took it?
The Spear of Death was stolen by night. There was not a trace of the thief. That is why we know it was the Leopardmen who stole it. They used their magic to take it.
You know, Leopardmen aren’t the only ones who know how to use magic.
Yes, but the lionmen have no reason to take it. Actually, they gave us that magic cage over there.
That is a magic cage?
Yes. It be built to hold Leopardmen prisoners. No magic can affect it when cast upon it. That way, the Leopardman prisoner cannot use magic to escape.
_{Too bad testing that would likely get me thrown inside.} Well, see you around, Yesufu.
Goodbye, friend Nike.



What in the world is this? Some sort of two-log balance beam?


Or maybe a set of monkey bars?

I never knew about this until just recently, but if you click on the logs instead of the rope on either end, the hero crosses the beam hand-over-hand. You can't do it while Uhura's around since she'll say you're doing it wrong, but it's actually a great Strength exercise.


Habari, hero. This be the place where the Simbani practice balance and judgment. This is the wrestling bridge. The last part of the initiation contests are held here.
“Wrestling bridge?” A couple of unsecured poles doesn’t strike me as the wisest of places to conduct a wrestling match.
This form of wrestling started many, many seasons of the journeys ago when women were first allowed to be warriors. When a man and a woman wrestle, either the man would win or he would be injured in a very sensitive area. Men are usually bigger and weigh more which be a real advantage in hand-to-hand wrestling. Unfortunately, the men were sometimes distracted by wrestling with a woman and this made them, uh, vulnerable and they could get hurt more often. So the Simbani started the wrestling bridge. This relies more upon balance than sheer strength or weight, so the women can compete with the men evenly. The men still get distracted sometimes by watching the wrong things, but that is all part of the contest.
That makes more sense than my hypothesis. Still, I’m not exactly the “physical exertion” type.
You think you can at least get from one side to the other? Even our little children can do this much.
Well, if you put it like that…


Imported stats coming to the rescue once again. If you made a character in this game, be prepared to fall. A lot.


Ha ha! Made it!
Congratulations, Nike. You are at least as good as our children.
No offense to your culture, Uhura, but I hardly need a rhabdophobic tribe’s approval to feel good about myself.




So now that I’ve crossed the bridge, what else do I need to know?
Walking on the bridge be the easy part. It be when someone else be on the bridge that it gets tricky. When you walk on this bridge, keep your feet on the outside of the logs. Feet apart give better balance. One way to make your opponent off balance is to jump. Keep your knees bent when you land because the boards under your feet will be moving up and down from the jump.


Another way to throw your opponent off be to lean hard to one side and put your weight on one foot.


Yet another way to be making your opponent fall be dropping down. You should practice these moves next time you are up here. It takes practice to do them and not fall off yourself.
Sure thing!






The moves also have the hidden benefit of making the hero look like a doofus. Again, import a character or prepare for falling damage. It’s possible to die from falling off too much, but I believe you get warnings for when both your stamina and health get dangerously low.

Habari, hero. You interested in trying this wrestling bridge with me?
Hell yeah! Doing all this stuff on my own was getting boring anyway.
Mzuri. I watched you practice some and figured you needed to be challenged before you think too big of yourself.


I’m just going to spare Uhura the explanation and tell it to you straight: this is a minigame about equilibrium. When they jump, you duck, and when they move to their left, you have to move to yours. If you counter correctly, then you get to choose an action, and the AI has a chance to mess up. If either you or the AI mess up twice in a row, or if you wait too long to respond to a movement, then that person falls off. The contest is best out of three. On this particular day, Uhura only messed up once total, so I ran out of stamina and fell automatically.


You look plenty out of breath, Nike. You should rest before you try this again. We be practicing more another day.
Dancing around on a wooden beam really takes the energy out of you.



I don’t really feel like practicing “wrestling,” Uhura. Mind if I just mess around on my own up here?
No one else be using it, Nike. Feel free.


After Ad Avis, a pair of logs feels like a highway. Maybe I can practice my acrobatics up here.





*Yawn* How could anyone fall off of such a simple balance beam?