http://www.unrealworld.fi/Engelbrekt Kaumolainen vs WildSurviving Iron Age FinlandPart 1: The RiverI used to fish with my uncle. From him I learned to respect the guardian spirits of the water and began to admire the power of water and dreamt of becoming a great fisherman one day.
On one of the fishing days we were caught in a sudden storm and our punt capsized... All the fish we had caught, along with me and my uncle, fell into the water. My uncle, being a great fisherman that he was, never learned to swim. The water was too cold and my limbs were starting to feel numb... so I had to leave my uncle to the water spirits, while I swam back to shore.
I knew my village wouldn't take this very well. I decided to grab all fishing equipment I could carry and left my lands for good.
I am Engelbrekt Kaumolainen, and I'm going to show you what it takes to survive in the Wild.
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loginFirst of June, year 916 AD, morning. After having ran away from my village, I find myself in what I believe to be the Driik lands. As a child I recall this land being called "Kimomäki", the Greyhill. I managed to grab enough equipment to help me survive.
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loginThe food I have will suffice. What I need to find is water to drink... and possibly a good river I can fish in, because sooner or later, I am going to run out of food.
About a half days walk in the "Soujareitti" region, I stumble upon two villages.
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loginThose will come in handy later, when I need some tools or other stuff I can't find or craft myself in the Wild. I go to that lake to have a drink of fresh water, as I was getting thirsty. The lake could provide me with some fish, but a river is going to be much better in that regard.
I continue my search for a river.
As I travel the Driik lands I notice several villages. The area is really densely populated. I refrain from going too close to any of the villages and keep looking for a river. I stumble upon what I first thought was a river, but then turned out to be a big lake. It is late evening, and I am beginning to get tired, so this is where I sleep tonight, out in the open.
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loginI eat the smoked bear cut I had with me, and dive into a wild slumber.
I wake up in the early hours of June 2nd. My search for a river continues. This area has a lot of big lakes, but knowing fishing like my left hand, I know that what I need is a river with rapids, where catching fish with the 2 nets I brought with me will prove fruitful.
Just as the sun rises, I finally find a river.
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loginThis is where I settle for now. The region of "Suurkosket", the Great Rapids. The area has enough trees to build a shelter and provide material for fire and the river for food. I still got a fresh pike in my backpack from my last fishing session, so I build a fire and roast it.
Next up - building a shelter, in case the rains come! Since I don't have an axe to fell a tree, I need to use my rough knife - takes me about an hour to cut down a small tree, but that should be enough to set up a basic shelter. I decide to craft a staff that I can later use as a javelin for hunting from one of the slender tree trunks that I got from felling that small tree. Takes me almost 5 hours to make a staff out of it with my rough knife, which leaves me exhausted and hungry.
The food reserves I had are starting to deplete, and catching fishes with the net takes time, if the water spirits are good to me. I decide that I will place those fishing nets before building a shelter, but am too exhausted to do it, so I lay on the ground and fall asleep.
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loginPerkele, Mother Nature punishes me. I wake up to rain. I should have built that shelter! Well, I managed to get enough rest to have the energy to place fishing nets into the rapids. If the water spirits will it, this should provide me with a good load of fish after a couple of days.
After placing the nets, I also do some active fishing. I need a few fishes to survive until those nets fill up.
Several hours later, no fish. It is early morning, and I'm beginning to get tired. I abandon my fishing task empty handed to build a shelter instead - Mother Nature will not surprise me again like that. I pick up one of the slender tree trunks I chopped up before and a few spruce twings. I cut down another young pine for more slender tree trunks and build my shelter.
As hours pass, and sun falls behing the trees, rain starts to fall again. Good thing I built this shelter. I drink some water from the river, eat the last of my deer meat and fall asleep.
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loginI have only one rye bread left. This is not going to last me even a day. Tomorrow I will pray to the Water Spirits and hope for a good catch, then go on a hunting trip. The fishing nets are not going to provide me fishes for at least a day, so I need to catch something edible or hunger will come.
Part 2: Hunger
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