Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Oren's Forge PG 376 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-16 22:00:10
Imported:
2026-09
Tags:

Content

New page out next Monday!

Files

Comments

Dhaka Yeena

Hmmm I have a feeling that Hap isn’t Really pleased with their decision but they probably know they have no choice but to accept

JeffMakesGames

Soon, we'll find out who is the unlucky winner. Yeah, the wolves don't seem to be happy about only one being given away, but it does show who is really in control of who though.

Felidae

Beautifully colored, and the political intrigue deepens!

Marcwolf

Happy thinks... "I ve never seen a more scrawling leaner set og picking. . Maybe the old ways were not so bad. :

Amethysmus

...and when they decide to choose none?

Sebasxian10

I like the range of expressions in the last panel from empathy or slight concern for Hap to disinterested/barely tolerating her

Shibblesgiggles01

Question, I know the ritual gives the wolves some food but if they fought other animals, wouldn’t it be better for them to hunt other animals for food and learn how to fight other animals and preserve food?

Rachel

How often is the zenith?

Houndstooth

I mean, what did they expect Hap to say? "You're basically starving us slowly, so yeah, I'm disappointed."

Luckyclaw

Could be one of those social games your boss makes you play. "Sooo how's your work going?" (After I dumped all the quarterly reports on you and made you crunch it all in a week). You can't say "FUCK YOU, TOM. DO THAT SHIT AGAIN AND I WILL QUIT." You have to be diplomatic. "I handled it this time; but we'll have to adjust the team's priorities if we want to avoid a situation like that again."

Luckyclaw

if they preserved every wolf, bison, and pronghorn who died in that recent war, they would STILL have food.

Luckyclaw

I had a sudden thought. If you aren't a strong bull; wouldn't it be better to be at the END of the line? The chance of picking a death-stone increases with every survivor, BUT, the chance of all the death-stones being removed before it gets to you increases. I wonder if, maybe, the smartest bison is the one at the very back...

Luckyclaw

Or, it could come back to some of the earlier speculation about which half of the Zenith is to blame for the Baby Killing Policy. Maybe Hap really ISN'T disappointed, because she DOES care about the lives of bison. "We should learn how to live lean" being meant as "we OUGHT to learn how to live lean... by destroying every wolf that isn't one of us." In which case, Gristle might be in serious danger if he keeps being obviously unendeared to the cult logic.

Flann Moriath

Singer’s promise that “you will never lack for fresh meat ever again” looks to be in jeopardy… I wonder which wolves will be prioritized as meat gets doled out in this pack.

treefiddy

It's interesting. The Mothers ask Hap if she's disappointed in their decision, but realistically, the wolves are ultimately going to do whatever is needed to survive once push comes to shove. What happens when the wolves aren't able to secure enough food outside of the herd, and the pack starts to experience true hunger for the first time? Are the mothers prepared for the consequences of their decision to starve out the pack? Do they even understand what those consequences even are? This herd has spent the past century (at least) gallivanting around, wiping out rival predators and prey species. Leaving a huge vacuum in their wake for new, more technologically advanced groups to form and fill that space. They've been putting huge pressure on everyone they pass to adapt and overcome their storm, and now that the day has come, they're refusing to pay the pied piper.

Flann Moriath

I also just noticed - the bison asking Hap if she is disappointed looks like the same bison looking back over her shoulder at Ramble as he says “you could feed every wolf in the world with all these bison” on p349. I wonder if the bison heard that comment and meant to humble the wolves (as Pivot feared), particularly the newcomers. And I wonder if the pack will resent the newcomer wolves if that comes to light.

Morpheus

assuming one stone per bison regardless of if its a death stone or not, and true random selection, then that doesn't really work. death stone could easily be the last one in the skull same as it could be the first.

Gale Tazzin

alt universe where she says yes and they immediately crack her skull

Grey

I don’t imagine the domesticated wolves know much about living lean. Gives Ramble and Gristle an interesting advantage.

teagangavet

Hhm-- just curious, what gives you in the impression their fight with the pronghorns was that recent? Hap only says "Not long ago, the herd pushed south, following the rains" which was meant to suggest it was at least a few seasons ago-- either a spring or during an autumn. How do you think they would preserve the meat? Grasslands do not have troves of available salt and the Zenith have not mastered fire, so smoking it is out. Without ash, they also can't make lye, so they can't do the Nordic method of burying it for months (also, being nomadic, I don't imagine they come back to the same area often.) I also think air-drying is out because of the heat (even wrapped in stomach/intestinal lining to keep out flies.) I think they gorged and lingered in the area to keep feeding for however long the herd felt comfortable being around the smell of death, then they rolled on.

teagangavet

I think you'll get some answers on the next page! A further ramble: I don't think they would gravitate towards finding ways to preserve food for a few reasons-- 1- NEED; biologically, their wolf-guts can process rancid meat way more effectively than humans, so they have less of an imperative to preserve hard-won meat. They can hang around a raw carcass and feed off it for weeks if needed, or even cut it up and cart it with them until it's gone/spoils beyond edible. Innovation is the product of need-- It's the same logic I apply to clothing-- humans *needed* clothing for warmth where-as a wolf doesn't, so I don't think a wolf is very concerned about making textiles (except maybe for pockets/storage.) The Zenith have basket weaving, a technology I think they would "need" because they want to carry and safeguard around their ritual skulls, etc. They don't "need" to preserve food when they are getting fed/eating other grazers they push out or predators. I think it's unlikely that a carcass ever goes to waste, the challenge rather is that the need for meat is constant. 2 - DIFFICULTY; food preservation is hard to achieve, especially when you have never done it or never thought about the concept of it. Grasslands are typically incredibly salt poor (grass doesn't grow in salty soil) so they aren't interacting with large salt deposits. The Zenith haven't mastered fire so the concept of smoking meat would be alien, the same with using ash for lye. These ideas are just not in their mental periphery. The only animals that the story has touched on that cache/preserve food is the mice at the Stone Hollow, who preserve seeds in clay. Since mice and squirrels naturally cache food, I think it's a logical step for them to look for ways to improve upon their natural survival strategy. Clay is also everywhere and even wet/unfired, it works to preserve food. (Lichen dries flowers to eat later but that's just what regular pikas do, no sapient-level innovation about it.)

treefiddy

my impression was always that their run-in with the pronghorn happened during the southwestern monsoon season, typically around August-September. But it could be a completely different weather pattern depending on where exactly they were at geographically. If it was the southwestern monsoon, it would have put that encounter almost a full year prior. Nerdy Meteorology explanation: There's a lot of general weather patterns that happen in the Central US throughout the year, and they've all actually been pretty well depicted in this story so far (whether intentionally or not). Starting in the late winter-early spring (februrary-late march) is when the severe weather tends to start down in central Texas, slowly moving northward with time. This is the time of year when moisture from the Gulf of Mexico starts advecting (moving) back northward into the plains after winter, and when you tend to get large low pressure systems forming and moving eastwards. These low pressures systems are formed by the Jet stream, which is a fast moving 'river' of air in the highest 1/4 of the troposphere. This jet stream will occasionally dip down south, forming a U shape, this is called a trough. The size of the trough determines how quickly it will move eastward. Generally, the smaller the through, the faster it will move. Troughs roughly the size of the US will not move hardly at all, or may even regress westward (more common later in the year), and smaller troughs roughly half the size of the US will move quickly eastwards (more common earlier in the year). The moving troughs are the ones that will form the big storm systems the plains are famous for. (the small troughs are also what cause the nor'easters in the north-east). Inside of the trough is the center of the low pressure system, formed by the rapid southern movement of the Jet stream (as the air moves south, it leaves a vacuum in its wake, aka, a low pressure area). As the Jet stream reaches the bottom of the U, it's sucked back northward by that low pressure, accelerating the winds before they're redirected north-eastward. This area where the winds are redirected north eastward (the bottom right of the U, or south eastern area) is where the storms develop, it's also called the left exit region of the trough. In this region the winds are spreading out after overshooting the low pressure system. This air spreading out causes rising motion in the atmosphere, where it condenses into rain and forms a thunderstorm. (the opposite happens on the southwestern or left half of the U where air is coming together before being accelerated at the bottom of the trough. Air here is forced downwards through the atmosphere, suppressing storms) This is in contrast to the typical thunderstorm model people are taught in science class, where cold air sinks and spreads along the surface like a ramp, forcing the warm/moist air upwards where it condenses into storms. The science class model is the long line of storms you tend to see that can span many states along a cold front. The troughing is what forms the isolated and compact supercells that spawn tornadoes. Cold fronts tend to form from the low pressure sucking cold air down from the north. Where's supercells tend to form ahead of these frontal systems from the aforementioned jet stream forcing. Well, this jet stream also dictates where rain falls throughout the seasons. As mentioned, the Jet stream starts off south in the late winter/early spring. With central texas being the most common area for the left exit region to impact. By April-May this region has moved to Oklahoma/South Kansas on average. Early June, and it moves to Northern Kansas/Nebraska. By late June/July it's in the Dakotas. This lines up with what we've seen so far, because we saw there was a great storm when Rask and Quanaq were on their journey at the beginning of volume 2. Rask mentioned in volume 2 that it was mid-summer (late June), which lines up with the peak storm season in this region (South Dakota). Coincidentally, this also lines up with why the Bison herd are in this area at this time, since they follow the Rains. Now, in July this weather pattern tends to flip. Instead of troughing, you tend to see the opposite. A persistent high pressure system forms over the high plains (typically over North Dakota). This is called an omega block (because the jet stream looks a lot like a greek Ω, with the peak centered around North Dakota). By this time the troughs that are normally small and fast moving are large enough that they don't really move all that much, and tend to stay in the south western region of the US. Leading to the famous american (southwestern) monsoon, while also leading to the drought like conditions that are very common in the plains during the late summer. So, it's interesting to think about what the Bison will do later in the season as things dry out in the plains. Are they going to be forced back down south where there's rain, or are they going to chance going even farther north and potentially trapping themselves in a drought.