Native Americans have a rich mythology, and at least one version exists as a recursion, a place on the plains as it might have existed before the coming of the White Man, pristine and unspoiled. On Thunder Plains, small villages dot the landscape. By night, the starscape above is echoed by themany tiny village fires below, around which medicine elders chant, sing, dance, and smoke. By day, the buffalo darken the plains, and every hunt is successful.
That is not to say that Thunder Plains always knows peace. The communities are of different cultures, and sometimes that leads to strife, raids, and even war. At times, the entire plains are mobilized, but that lasts only so long as Waki’ya, the Thunderbird, remains quiescent. When the great bird rises to darken the sky, it is a signal that the time for war—at least against each other—is done.
Only a handful of the natives in each village are medicine elders, but everyone helps in the nightly rituals where participants dance silently while nude or while wearing a variety of ceremonial garb, including robes; headdresses of feathers, fur, and antlers; and masks of buffalo, cougars, and crows. Medicine elder rituals can accomplish many things, but they are often focused on healing disease, healing themind, or promoting harmony (against the wishes of the young warriors who dream of glory and testing their mettle).
Recursors suffering from a curse or a disease, or those who wish to learn something a dead relative took with them to the grave, sometimes visit Thunder Plains to seek the aid of themedicine elders, whose ritual-derived powers are amazingly strong and sometimes even function in recursions that operate under a law other than magic.
A recent immigrant from Earth named Naira Horsecapture is learning the ways of the Naira Horsecapture: level 5 medicine elders, after she proved herself by driving off a recursion miner intent on stealing a relic called the Four Winds. Naira has the ability to speak to the spirits of the Thunder Plains.
Angry whispers slip down from Earth, and in the village of Balkum in Thunder Plains, the natives do not dance for peace, or for victory over other tribes during times of war. Instead, they dance for revenge. Some among them have the spark and have somehow learned of atrocities that occurred on Earth in the past against various native peoples.
And so each night the Millennium Dance is observed, which is intended to send Thunderbird to Earth through an inapposite
A herd of insubstantial creatures made of red smoke (that somewhat resemble buffalo) has moved onto the plains. These creatures are seen only at night, and they are always moving west. Those who see them have dreams of blood and conquest.
A black oak tree outside a large village has become the recent nesting ground for a crow as big as a man. The medicine elders of the village are convinced the crow is an earthly representative of Thunderbird, but others are less sure. If the crow man were really a servant of Thunderbird, why would it be so curious about ways to lure the Thunderbird to someplace called Crow Hollow?
A rash of strange outsiders has descended on Thunder Plains. These outsiders dress strangely and seem given to the ft. In retaliation, themedicine elders have declared all such outsiders as enemies of the tribe.
This supernatural bird is a divine being of power, strength, and protection. Within the context of Thunder Plains, it is a god. Recursors who visit Thunder Plains and overstep their welcome (either knowingly, or perhaps by blundering into a taboo) may summon Thunderbird, which could carry off those who displease it, or eradicate a foe in a blast of lightning.
Thunderbird: level 10; if slain, reforms the next night, unless slain in another recursion gate and allow it to unleash unholy destruction for as long as it can endure.
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A mask carved to evoke a particular animal of the natural world Effect. Several different animal masks exist. When activated, the mask confers an ability of the totem animal for one hour.
The kinds of masks include (but are not limited to) the following:
Owl: Wearer’s Intellect Edge increases by 1
Wolf: Wearer’s Speed Edge increases by 1 Bear: Wearer adds 3 points to Might Pool
Hawk: Difficulty of all perception tasks for wearer decreases by two steps
Snake: Wearer deals 2 additional points of venom damage on a successful melee attack
Transformation: The mask transforms the wearer into an animal of a specified type. The wearer takes on the physical characteristics and abilities of the animal for the duration but retains his own mind. Sometimes the wearer of an activated animal mask exhibits some of the behavioral characteristics of the animal the mask emulates, even for non-transformational masks.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6
Form: A river smooth stone with a hole in the center
Effect: When the stone is activated, the next task the wearer attempts within one minute is decreased in difficulty by one step.
Depletion: 1–4 in 1d20