Hillfolk

07 Sep, 2026

Hillfolk

A RuneQuest setting.

Those who travel with the Plainsfolk sometimes tell stories of a valley in the shadow of a mountain with a swollen peak. They say that the sky hangs low there, that the cosmos intervenes.

Plainfolk

These people are sturdy and imperious. They wear their black hair bunched up high.

Sixty-three live in a camp at the mouth of the valley.

They travel around the prairie herding goats but camp in the valley this time of year to forage. They live in billowing tetrahedral tents of starchy linen. They saddle their young during the day: a child is watched over by the goats as much as the people.

These people call themselves the Kaizi. They call the prairie Korinkaiz, the valley Janhav, the peak Goitie, and the stream Goit.

Their foragers warn travellers of three strange things that hide in Janhav. The first are the gigantic big beasts covered in red fur with streaks of rust. The second are the red-haired folks who stalk the woods and shy away to higher ground when noticed. They call both the Janhi. The third are the Jansha, which are evil fairy bees.

The Valley

The ground is red and dusty. The sky is turquoise and endless. The clouds are cream and wispy.

B - Meadow

The stream gently curves around a valley meadow of grass and wildflowers, yellow and purple. Here and there are little mounds: the rotted remains of ancient pine tree-stumps.

Two plants of note grow here. The first is tall with long thin leaves and little cupped flowers (Yellow-Rattle): it can be used to make yellow dye or as a treatment for spirit-sapping ailments . The second has thick prickly spears and heads bristling with purple spines (Thistle): it can be used as a base for concoctions of health and healing.

C - Meander

The stream snakes through this open stretch of scrub. No trees grow, only ferns and bracken and sprouting shoots of thick juicy peduncles. This is a favoured spot of the hillfolk, the plainfolk, and the bears.

A familiar little woody herb grows here. It looks like a little pine tree studded with yellow clustered heads. It smells bitter and heady and is a wonder-remedy for most things.
You people would probably call it wormwood.

D - Bulb Ridge

Pines cast shadows over a long and wide ridge. Under their eaves the ground is thick with accumulated dust and sand and pine needles, a carpet thumb-deep.

A plant called the Pilgrim Bulb grows here. The tuber resembles a tapered turnip as big as a baby's head and just as unblemished. The flesh smells of chalky stale bread and the long swaying leaves like mint.
It slips from the fingers of those who attempt to pluck it, sinking below the ground before rising moments later a dozen feet away. It is easy enough to pick one as a team but a mean feat by oneself.
There are 2d3 specimens here. The bulb grants alchemo-magical properties of light-footedness and tirelessness.

E - Karst Spring

A spring nestled in a raised crag on the valley wall. The pool is wide and shallow like a saucer: the hillfolk build tall and thin cairns on the dusty banks. The stream dribbles down from here, crystalline and cold.

F - Bear Cave

A relict gully stems from the stream: the water once flowed from a different place. One can follow this slight path of still and dry shingle to a nook up the valley.

The cave is a yonic crevice as wide as a man and twice as tall. A big red-furred bear slumbers within, filling up the rear of the cave with its heft.

G - Petroglyph Wall

An expanse of valley wall stripped bare by the wind. Upon it, to a height of four men high, is a magnificent array of images carved with stone tools and coloured with chalky white dust.

At the base are people and goats and horses.
In the middle are pine trees and people and big fat bears.
At the top, separated from below by spiralling clouds, is an expanse of stars and astral bodies.
A stream flows through it all from the very top to the very bottom.

The tiger-headed man stands before the wall in deep study. It has noted that there are several stars on the wall that are missing from the night's sky: when drawn as a constellation they resemble a bird with a big beak like a bucket.

H - Pine Cave

A grove of pines grow on a small shelf. Within the grove, towards the valley wall, is a slope of loose scree. The slipped stones have revealed a meek shaded divot in the rock just big enough to shelter a dozen or so people.

An image has been rendered on the cave's rear wall using stone tools and chalky white dust. It resembles a person sitting up against a rock, or a person who is a rock. Their right arm trails down, undulating. A circle has been drawn over their stomach, and within are people at rest and a big fat bear.

I - Hillfolk Caves

The top of the valley is split by a rising escarpment of colour-banded rock: red and white and pink, each strip as tall as a person.

On the right side of the ridge (from below) a series of sixteen caves stand out. They look to have been deliberately expanded with stone chisels into dwellings. They all sit within the white bands of rock: the six on the lowest strata can be walked into, the four in the middle require a scramble, and the six at the top need to be climbed to.

These caves are the dwellings of the Hillfolk. 6d10 can be seen by the cave entrances during the day, nursing young and braiding together dried grasses into sheets. One can even be seen carefully shredding a Pilgrim's Bulb with a sharp rock.
They hide within their caves if they notice strangers. At night the foragers and hunters return with baskets of nuts and herbs and fruits.

There is a 5-in-6 chance that any given cave is inhabited.
The third cave on the middle row is busy at most hours: a tiny karst spring dribbles from the back of the cave and collects in a carved basin for use.
A random cave on the bottom row is occupied by a family of three red-furred bears. They emerge if they hear violence and set about strangers with sharp tooth and heavy claw.

J - Astrolathe

A high plateau of bare rock is cradled high in the valley. Something up there glimmers when the moon is wide and the stars shine bright. Scaling up to it is a mean feat.

The promontory is narrow and exposed, scarcely big enough to fit four people lying head-to-toe. The only feature is an altar carefully carved with metal chisels from a single chunk of the red rock.

The altar resembles a long thin workbench with a ribbed post rising up on each end. A third of the way along a tablet juts up: there are eight holes that run through it parallel with the bench. Along the other two thirds, a metal blade sits perpendicular to the bench on a runner that can be brought back and forth.

This is the Astrolathe. At times when the firmament is fragile the night sky can be tugged down, as if threads of black fibre, and fed into the altar. The sky can then be brought together through the holed tablet into a single thick belt, as if tablet weaving. It can then be gently turned and worked with the blade to remove unwanted stars. Finally, the altered sky is cut loose, unbraided, and cast into the void, where it returns to rest up high once more.

Encounters

Meteoric Sprite

Ozone on the air: the fresh crisp smell of burnt metal and thunderstorms. Then, the sound of pebbles being jostled together in a cupped hand.

These sprites resemble thumb-sized pieces of metal, some red with heat, some blackened with soot, some shiny and silvery. They are fragments of fallen meteoric iron.

3d3 are encountered at a time. They clack and orbit and swirl around as if drawn by some strange force. If interfered with they buzz angrily and whip themselves at you like sling-pellets. If trailed they lead you to a fist-sized chunk of fallen iron, still searingly hot.

Big-Beaked Bird

First, a sonorous tone on the wind, as if from a clarinet or a bottle-flute. Then, a sudden shadow, as if something had flown overhead. Finally, moments later, the realisation that something has gone missing.

This sky-spirit was erased from the sky by the Astrolathe and so banished from the realm of men. Only through a mean feat of will and readiness can it be perceived. Those who have noted the missing constellation of the Petroglyph Wall find it easier.

The spirit takes the form of a pelican with long wispy feathers and a huge beak of pristine orange porcelain. It swoops down and steals things that people miss, keeping them in its beak. It carries countless heirloom rings and favourite knives and eagerly-awaited meals and treasured grooming-brushes and well-used sewing needles.

The spirit wants to be remembered. It soars around the valley, one of the last places where a depiction of it survives. It makes pursuit long but easy before descending to greet those chasing it. It offers a pick of any one item from its beak.

Tiger-Headed Man

A man wanders the valley. It wears a belted black-silk gown and tight leather boots that cover the shins. It bears a curved blade as long as an outstretched arm from shoulder to finger-tip. It has a tiger's head.

It is narcissistic and intense, and calls itself Albizzia Julibrissin of Buyukabad, to the south-east. It insists that it is a he, and that he is not a broo-demon but a cursed magician. He calls things in the valley as the Plainfolk do: he went to them for leads.
He seeks the Astrolathe, a ritual site on the mountain where one can spin the firmament to one's desire. He wishes to work his own image into the night sky.

His silk gown is a magical implement that can be grasped and billowed to summon a sphere of night under the sun or tar-like darkness under the moon.

Hillfolk

These people are attentive and fretful. They wear no clothes and let their bristly red hair hang loosely around their shoulders. They are a bit shorter than other people and their brows are a bit stronger. Upon a close look one can see that their noses are huge and fleshy and swollen and drooping, totally unlike most other people. They walk around stooped and place their weight on their knuckles.

Sixty three live in the caves at the top of the valley.

They live in the valley gathering nuts and fruit and herbs, and live in caves towards the top. They weave mats and baskets out of dried grass and use sharp rocks as hand-axes and chisels and knives. They take care of their young communally.

These people speak no language. Their knowledge is pre-verbal and passed down through demonstration. They are themselves. The prairie is the prairie, the peak the peak, the stream the stream, and the valley home.
You people would probably call them dwarves or hobbits or elves.