Birds and Rabbits

First Written    Tue Nov 16 07:55:32 2021
File Modified    Wed Feb 14 18:32:26 2024
Latest Upload    Sun Oct 12 01:47:32 2025

Giant rabbits are a source of food in the forest, although they are not the only source.

Terror birds hunt them too, and occasionally rile up and hunt in large flocks.

Players need to both find food and fend off attackers.

Ambush Hunting

A solid blade like a machete or bolo can be used to hack away brush and let hunters into the deep woods where rabbits feel safe.

A hollowed bush can be used to hide in and prepare an ambush, and leaves double as camouflage and protection from heat and insects.

The blade's sharp edge has enough weight behind it to split rabbit skulls, or to hack at predatory birds.

With a metal blade, sparks can be used to easily make fire to cook or dry meats.

Smoke is a common tool to mask scent, and wet leaves are excellent for smoking out quarries and blinding them in one move.

Starting Items: Iron Machete, Flint, Charcoal

Pits and Roots

A spade is a tool for digging, or for finishing off animals who have broken their legs in a hole.

Holes can be dug to make traps, sleeping rabbits can be unearthed, pits can be used to corner fleeing rabbits, and roots and tubers can be dug up to supplement the rarer meat meal.

A shallow covered pit can be used to ferment food, bringing out nutrients and medicinal properties.

Starting Items: Copper Spade, Sourdough Starter, Antibacterial Clay

Crop Farming

An adze or mattock turns the earth en masse, with high likelihood of revealing sleeping rabbits or their young.

Such finds are only appetizers, as the main purpose of tilled earth is to provide bountiful food in the future.

Although the heavy adze is unsuitable for hunting, it is a fine weapon for fending off hungry rabbits or worse, hungry birds.

The same bowls which cook rich recipes of meat and vegetables doubles as a shield.

Starting Items: Stone Adze, Copper Bowl, Assorted Seeds

Traditional Hunting

Foraging berries is little reward from a nutritional standpoint, but useful for the creation of poisons and tinctures.

A bow can strike a rabbit from afar, not killing, but inflicting fatal wounds sped up by toxic dips.

Knowledge of archery and medicine is also useful for waging war, which is a common occurrence when birds come to track the same rabbits wounded and bloodied by arrows.

Starting Items: Recurve Bow, Mortar and Pestle, Sheave of Arrows

Ropes and Snares

Weaving is a tedious task, but ropes and twine are used for everything from snares to deadfall traps and nets.

A net, lariat, or harpoon-like Swiss dart can be used to surprise rabbits and drive them towards traps.

The same techniques can be used for fishing in waters, or for defending against birds who also frequent watering holes and love to eat trapped rsbbits.

Starting Items: Drop Spindle, Large Roll of Twine, Copper Needle

Persistence Hunting

A long staff or spear can be used to kill a rabbit, whether in one's hand or thrown.

A polearm can be embedded into the ground to halt a charging bird, while shorter spears are easier to throw.

In all too common times of exhaustion, the long pole doubles as a walking stick or even as a bindle or tent pole.

Long weapons can also be used to dredge and poke water or mud, potentially revealing secrets and artifacts within.

Starting Items: Quarterstaff, Copper Spearhead, Bindle Cloth

Leather

A dagger gets skins from unlucky rabbits, and tanning turns them into leather.

Strips of leather can be used for armour, whips, slings, and even saddles or collars for birds.

Extra meat lures terror birds near and equipment keeps them relatively docile.

Once the hard part of taming a bird is done, they will begin to kill prey much easier than a knife can.

The urea-rich waste of birds is useful for tanning even more leather, and can be harvested from wild birds as well.

Starting Items: Obsidian Knife, Sling, Water Skin

Engineering

A hatchet turns wood and stone into gadgets of all sorts, and can double as a weapon in a pinch.

Said wood is more useful in the form of a siege engine or structure, such as a crossbow, ballista, tower, rabbit chariot, or trebuchet.

Once a ranged weapon is constructed, rabbits can be hunted from afar, but early on food is difficult to obtain with a hatchet alone.

A mechanical mill can grind forage plants, wood pith, and rabbit bones into nutritionally poor but cheap flour.

With the use of ash, sulfur, and bird guano, explosive black powder can be made to boost the utility of constructed weapons even further.

Starting Items: Copper Hatchet, Pouch of Copper Nails, Hardtack Rations