Boat Trolls planning thread! (full of spoilers, non-players enter at your own risk)

my logic here is that the deer in the area are all well fed, healthy, and on really high alert due to a well-established six-strong wolf pack having been in the area for awhile. a low success rate for a pair of wolves is kind of to be expected.

 

S I G H

 

Yeah!

 

Was at studio, heading home now.

 

Erskin's smaller than timberwolves on average and used to being a loner, so he's used to sidling quickly away from any situation that turns unfriendly. He'd be more outgoing with dogs or other werewolves— regular wolves are comparatively brittle and defensive about strange things and strangers.

 

as for erskin's little ritual, his family is obviously very intense on not being monsters, so i think they'd emphasize respect for their prey, but that froofy hippie stuff like 'thank you for your sacrifice' would irritate erskin and probably the practical ladies related to him, because the deer definitely did not intend to give them anything, it wanted to get away. it emphatically did not want to feed them.

so 'well, you did your best, better luck next time,' seems an appropriate send-off.

 

oh right also: don't eat your prey while it's still kicking, that's such an awful way to die, have some respect and wait till it's gone before doing anything too shockingly painful like disembowling, you're not an animal.

(the idea of werewolf table manners amuses me. a bunch of wolves all standing around politely till the boss mom or dad is like 'ok, good game everyone, it's dinner' and THEN descending into ripping and tearing and wrestling is funny to think about.)

 

so i think this pack is

mom, going on six and doing very well for herself, currently on her fourth batch of pups
(dad deceased over the summer)
two boys and a girl from this year, six-seven months
a girl from last year, a year and a half old
a boy and a girl from the year before, two and a half years, the boy will be shipping out once a stepdad's in the picture, the girl might ship out if she meets anyone cute over the winter.

 

yeah, that and he's a stranger but he's acting really harmless and placating and not just going away. they probably all expected the intruders to do the easy math and sulk off after some blustering, not... stick around and try to be pals.

 

i too am in uncharted territory! i'm assuming for plot's sake that the wolves would rather 'most of a deer with no fight' than 'all of a deer plus fights'. they, like erskin, know that even minor scuffles really suck. erskinreally doesn't want to deal with a bit-up nose or a torn-up ear that the mom might dish out to him, or anything worse like a broken or hamstrung leg sustained while running from a pack of hyped up aggro kids.

that would actually be an interesting thing for bel and erskin to puzzle over. bel obviously doesn't want to getshot, but he's got a very human assurance of medical care, and available food while he's recovering from stuff. for erskin, even though he's a lot hardier and smarter and less likely to die than an animal, even minor wounds are a really, really bad time.