1. FAMILY HUTS
Most family huts are 6 m wide and 18 m long. The outer walls are wood and the roofs are thatch. Family huts are shared by a number of families. There will be as many families as there are doors to the hut. Each family separates itself from the neighbors in the hut by heavy wooden walls with no connecting doors. To visit one's neighbors requires leaving one entrance of the hut and going to another. Family rooms are divided into two spaces, one for the head male, the other for the remainder of the family. Family interiors are divided by flimsy, movable wooden screens that are highly carved. The screens provide soft cover. Floors are dirt and are covered by woven or fur rugs. Utensils are made from clay, wood, or gourds. Beds are wooden racks. Meals are cooked over open fires banked by circles of stones. Holes in the roof let out the smoke. Cloth woven from the fur of the dopees as from water and plains animals are used throughout.
2. GARDEN PLOTS
Before you is an area of green growth. Various types of plants grow in regular rows. The areas are broken by occasional rows of tall plants 2 m high and as wide as the plot. (1-10 Heliopes) During the day the gardens are tended by families who live nearby. All Heliope children are curious and friendly and show no fear of the PCs.
3. DOPEE PEN
Before you is a square corral made of wooden poles and posts. Within the corral are large, slow moving creatures that resemble rabbits. Piles of green plants are scattered about the corral and the creatures are eating them. (1-10 Heliope Females & 2-20·5 Dopees) The Heliopes are learning to raise animals for food. Contained in these pens are dopees usually tended by the village women. The dopees are commonly owned and the meat is divided after a slaughter.
4. BACHELOR HUTS
(5-10 Heliopes) When attaining adulthood males of any family go to these bachelor huts. They live in them until they marry and move into their own huts. The huts are round in shape and about 30 m in diameter. The interiors are completely open and only movable screens mark off spaces within where the occupants keep their personal possessions. Food is provided by the village families each day.
5. SLAVE HUT
Within this large, circular hut are kept eleven nomads captured in battle by the villagers. They are a brutalized and dispirited lot as they are overworked and occasionally made sport of. Most bear scars from battle or cruel treatment. Some may have lost a leg.
6. WELLS
A small open pit in the ground is shaded by foliage. The ground around the edge is hard and dusty and shows footprints. One meter below the edge is a pool of water. These are crudely dug wells that are open and free for use by anyone. They are not very deep but the water is safe to drink. No device for drawing the water is provided as its surface is normally within 3 m. The Heliopes use ropes tied to gourds to draw the water up.
7. ROKAKAR'S HUT
The hut is large and spacious. It measures 10 m wide by 30 m long. There is a small room at its north end which measures 10 m wide and 3 m long. The room is partitioned by very heavy, carved walls. The remainder of the hut is devoted to the rest of Rokakar's family.
8. FISHING HUTS
Fishers are the craft experts of the village as fishing in the river is dangerous. All homes of the fishers are ornate and well constructed. Otherwise the huts are similar to other family huts in design, construction, size, and layout. Harpoons and small barrels of purple liquid that will keep gasps from attacking the crude boats are in the huts.
9. LEKEEKH'S HUT
This is a circular, single family dwelling. It contains a small private room for Lekeekh and a large common room for the others.
10. CUKKAR'S HUT
This hut is the same as 9.
11. EMPTY HUT
This hut will be turned over to the players if they do not make enemies of the Heliopes. Several of the village females will come to build a cooking fire, lay down rugs, cloths, and eating utensils for the PCs. Unless the PCs speak Heliope the females will not understand them However, they will get the idea if PCs want them to leave.
12. BOATS
Along the river bank are dugout canoes 3-4 m long, hewn from the trunks of single trees then carved and polished. None are over 1 m wide. The aft portions are flatter and wider than the bow portions. From the bows jut small platforms equipped with several leather straps. There are openings in the bottoms of the platforms, reachable by someone sitting in the bow. In the bow of each boat is a barrel of purple liquid with a drip spout in the bottom. Each boat carries six paddles, all of them intricately carved, and some are wrapped in oiled leather.
These are the boats made by the Heliope fisher families. They are crude, clumsy, and difficult to handle and control.
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