Adventures for Tribal Shamans (SB)

__TOC__
Tribal shamans in their very concept provide adventure hooks, being that they are the center of tribal life. With their clearly defined social functions, they characters themselves can be instrumental in prompting, instigating or complicating adventures.
For example the hunting shrine might be the focus for an enemy's attempt to ruin the tribe's hunting. By desecrating the area, murdering the shamans present, or sacrificing here to hostile spirits, unscrupulous foes might hope to turn the totem spirits against the tribe—the spirits being offended that the tribe failed to prevent the desecration, and dooming all their hunts to fail until the insult is avenged. The player characters might be involved in the perpetration, prevention, or punishment of such an attack. If they are shamans for the tribe attacked in this fashion, it may be their duty to find a way to appease the spirits, and then hunt the perpetrators.
The annual hunt can also be the source of adventure of a tribal shaman. A novel "whodunit" scenario is a natural here, for the wrongdoing of one individual can cause disaster to befall the whole tribe. So, the crimes of a player character or NPC might cause the hunt to fail, and the investigations of a shaman to uncover these wrongs might be the only thing that can save the tribe from starvation. Depending on the nature of the crime, the offender may be desperate to remain hidden, and what may begin as an investigation of who failed to pay proper homage to the spirits, may end up as a murder mystery, with the bodies slowly piling up. If the crime is less severe, the shaman will have to see that proper sacrifices are made on the final day of the hunt. :
Even the aftermath of a transfer curse spell might provide a novel gaming situation. If a large, lumbering ox carrying the village's wrongs were now heading back towards the community, lowlevel tribal shamans and other player characters might be dispatched to divert or discourage it; they cannot kill the creature unless they wish to carry all the wrongs, and should find it too large to just wrestle to the ground and drag away. A more imaginative method of driving it off would be necessary, and the situation could be complicated if it were particularly stubborn or belligerent, or if it were being magically controlled by an enemy of the tribe (with an animal spy or call animal spell). Perhaps this might be just one episode in a long series of magical attacks, or might introduce the player characters to a long adventure which pits them against a malign shaman.
The notion of a shaman using the spirits to wage war on another tribe can open up all kinds of interesting scenarios with which to challenge a tribal shaman. An enemy might bind guardians on the outskirts of the tribe's funeral grounds, or he might find a way to trap bogeymen inside the remains of the deceased and use charm spirit spells to set them marching toward the tribe's village. (This would be particularly frightening if there are also some player character priests in the village—the skeletons would not turn when the holy symbols are presented, as are animated, but not undead.)