Unbroken Coast Downtimes 3

 WINTER IS COMING: Anyone who has taken Unbroken Coast downtime will have to face winter when it arrives. Make sure you have some plan for food and shelter, or else when winter comes you will have to make saves vs disease, starvation, death by frost, etc. One way to avoid this fate is sailing away to another world where it isn’t winter, like the elves do. However, doing so estranges you from time. You will be unable to take downtime actions in the Unbroken Coast.

(If you have a stronghold to stay in, you should be fine for winter, otherwise try to find some friend who can offer hospitality. If neither is available, you can buy common food and lodging for winter for 120 coin and poor-quality for 36 coin.) (I’ll @ you all when it’s time to resolve this, just warning you now so you know in advance)

Events

Harvest: The year is winding down; the harvest festival has arrived. Everyone is either working in the fields reaping their crops, bringing the food into storage, or celebrating the harvest. Towns hold feasts where people gather and give thanks to the local gods and make sacrifices. Gods associated with farming, like Mithras or Lady Spring, occasionally attend these festivals. If anyone wants to spend the harvest festival in a specific town, talk to anyone specific during the festival, or have a cleric make an offering to a particular god, @ me in discord to resolve the details. 

Weather: The Homeward Wind blows through the coast, helping ships return from long voyages and helping land journeys by blowing away bad weather. Monsters are also less active, as they get ready for winter. Travel through the wilderness is much easier. Beware, eventually the Homeward Wind will fade and be replaced by the icy North Wind, which is nigh-impossible to travel through. So this period of safe travel is best used to return home before the harvest festival ends and winter sets in, not start new expeditions. 

The Grain-Ship: Beacon City sent out a riverboat filled with grain to the town of Newmill, which they heard was facing famine. Newmill rejoices; they will make it through the winter without starvation. This may be a bad move for Beacon City, however, because…

Dragons: Around a half-dozen red dragons attacked harvest festivals in the villages surrounding Beacon City, burning food as it was stored and transported. A hero who now calls himself Johnny Dragonslayer killed a dragon with a single arrow, revealing that these dragons are weaker than usual. Beacon City sent groups of archers to guard nearby harvest festivals after the first day of attacks, and the dragons stopped attacking. The dragons flew north when retreating. Beacon City is trying to buy grain at high prices, to make up for the damage to their stores, though barely any trade caravans are operating this late in the year. Anyone who can get a trade caravan to Beacon City before winter sets in and travel becomes nigh-impossible will be able to sell their grain for 3x normal price. 

Omens: The god Giantslayer showed up to a harvest festival in Meadhaven. While drunk on several barrels of mead, he revealed that he’s in the Unbroken Coast area because someone pissed off the fire giants and he thinks they’ll try something next year. While these are just rumors, most of the town witnessed feats of strength like lifting a hill and moving it to give better shade, which seemingly prove that it really was Giantslayer. 

Downtimes

Drava seeks an animal trainer for his sun-cheetah, following a rumor he learned from an orc patrol. The animal trainer who lives in the hills is an orc woman named Sevenhides who rides a giant bear. She warns that animals of the cat kingdom are always aloof and will not follow orders the way a hound would, only blood-magic or the passing of generations can change that. However, she can train the sun-cheetah in some basics, for 500 coin. 

If you pay: Sun-cheetah now treats Drava as safe, and friendly but stray-cat-friendly. Additionally, choose one of these to have the sun-cheetah trained to do.

• Follow: Stay close, acting as a light source. After 1d6 hours it gets bored of following and wanders off. 

• Hunt: Try to hunt something, if successful then return and lead you to it. 

• Don’t hunt: Refrain from hunting without permission, even if the pack animals or livestock seem really tasty.

• Ambush: Join a fight, only one where the enemy is unaware. Roll morale to not flee if faced with combat longer than an initial first strike. 

With more downtimes spent in the hills and more coin given to the animal tamer, you can train more of these behaviors, or request your own.

Aralake/AgentXII go shopping in Beacon City and look for interesting weapons and armor. A grizzled old war bear is willing to part with his absurdly specialized polearm, but will only give it to someone brave and strong enough to wrestle it away from him. (@ me for details if you want to try) reward is: the counter-lancer-fauchard-ranseur: As polearm, unhorse mounted opponents on a hit) 

Additionally, the two are celebrated in the city for their role in defeating a pirate ship. Lots of free drinks at taverns, mostly.  

ShopGirl sets up a stall in front of the Snail House, a property in the goblin city of New Gobmuck, and tries to sell Giant Coffee Beans and a basket of the orange fruit. A wealthy goblin named Hathasahat and his many minions buy these… but it turns out he paid in speculative goblin currency instead of proper coin. Lost 2 giant coffee beans and a basket of orange fruit, gained 1,500 frogcoin. (false-silver coins with frog images on them, only as valuable as you can bamboozle people into thinking they are worth) 

A goblin will deliver a note addressed to Shopgirl and written in elvish, it requires translation. 

Eddratius seeks a non-goblin apprentice in New Gobmuck. He meets and can recruit Lloyde vim’Torpore, a L2 magic user from a prestigious family whose only notable trait is being from a prestigious family. (Spells: magic missile, light, shield, levitate) Eddratius also gains a rival, the goblin wizard Chimerlin, who is offended by his refusal to take goblins as apprentices. Any further adventures or downtime in the city will be interfered with. 

Knighto seeks a wizard to cast plant growth. There is only one wizard in the land known to have that spell: Narene the master of timber. His tower is on a forested volcanic island full of dragon-spawned monsters, and is guarded by animate trees, so visiting to ask for help will be a challenge. Other known wizards who don't know the spell but are powerful enough to cast it if given a scroll: Zaphoraz, court wizard of Prince Vantage. Gristleglue, the necromancer responsible for a ghoul disaster, currently being held prisoner in Beacon City awaiting trial. 

Domain Matters

These are addressed to the master of each domain, but everyone else can act on the information here, as rumors from these places spread. 

Coppercave:

The mining “town” of coppercave is doing well-ish. Here is the report sent to their leader, Badger. 

• It’s still just a bunch of tents and a few wooden buildings built near a cave, not a proper town. No copper has been mined. However, they expect to be able to start mining next year once winter passes.

• The truce with the hillfolk is holding, they now visit the settlement to trade. 

• A team of clerics and fighters sent by the cult of the psychopomp, lead by a man in silvery magic plate armor, cleared all remaining ghouls in the cave. They present 12 ghoul heads to the miners and send Badger a bill for 300 coin.

• Johann Dredge, the mining engineer in charge of the town, seems annoyed that the mine has been delayed by the ghouls and won’t be able to start mining this year.  

Kingdom of the Valley

Here are the events Knighto faces when returning to his castle.

• Taxes: The town of Silver Lake Abbey sends 1000 coin in tax, as well as enough food to count as ‘common food’ for all living in the castle. 

• Newmill is not paying taxes, still damaged by the war, but expects to be able to next year if the harvest is good and no further disasters happen. Thanks to a gift of grain from Beacon City, they no longer face famine. Hugo Miller, their mayor, asks that the kingdom repay this gift somehow.  

• Colette Rivers, a lawful priestess of the three rivers and the lake, says she has a message for Knighto: “The rivers and the lady of the lake are protecting your kingdom from the locust swarms on the other side of the valley because they are still somewhat attached to the people, but expect to receive worship and sacrifices in return for their help like they used to.They ask whether you plan to restore the priesthood at their temple or build a new one for them.” She asks for a reply, so she can deliver a message to the lake and rivers. 

• Dergo has handled various minor matters of rulership, in his role of regent. The servants of the castle say that the people are still uncertain about him; he’s wise but kind of creepy. 

Unbroken Coast downtimes 2

 (Context for anyone reading who isn’t in the game, this is an update for the people playing in my Basic Fantasy RPG game, the Unbroken Coast.)

Events: 

The leaves are starting to orange. There will only be more downtime, then the seasons will turn. 

The war with the dark lord has ended, the kingdom in the valley is starting to recover. A plague of locusts has afflicted the West side of the valley, but the locusts have not yet crossed the lake or river to the East side. If they do, with the autumn harvest so soon, it will be a disaster for the valley and many will starve. 

The sky is full of more stars than usual. Astrologers say that the celestial gods have all assembled around the Unbroken Coast, expecting some kind of threat. A bright red light can sometimes be seen on the horizon, something coming in from the East, over the ocean. 

A pillar of flame devastated a small island, visible from miles around. Rumors say that this was caused by an evil wizard.

Some kind of war in the hills seems to have been averted, to the disappointment of countless mercenaries. 

People are feeling superstitious and panicky, with all the terrible omens recently. Magic-users and anyone else who superstitious peasants might react badly to should probably be low-key while traveling. Beacon City has sent clerics to most towns, to reassure people and defend against evil and stop people from starting mobs or witch-hunts.

Downtimes

Hatkin travels  around Knighto’s lands, with a group of hired bards, to spread his legend: The tale of how he rode on the giant ant Antkin to chase down an army of orcs. This seems to be the perfect time to spread this story, right after the war and during a time of tension between the townsfolk and the patrolling orcs. Hatkin, who is now sometimes called “the Antrider Knight”, has become a local folk hero. The orcs patrolling the land heckle the performances and say that when the next dark lord eventually takes over, they’ll get revenge. Good reputation with the people of the valley, bad reputation with the orcs.

The people of the valley are also now willing to accept giant ants as neighbors, though you should probably wait until spring to bring them in, so they don’t have to face the winter with little time to prepare. 

(Write this legend down on your character sheet. Most everyone in Knighto’s valley has heard it, by the end of next year it will soon spread to other settlements, and other worlds at GM discretion)

Lurk seeks out temples of the bird-headed sun god, and learns that he is called the Horizon Bird. He is one of several closely-related Lawful solar gods, collectively known as the sons of the sun. Horizonbird isn’t widely worshiped on the Unbroken Coast, his cult is in faraway pyramid kingdom, but he has a statue in one of Beacon City’s temples and a small shrine in the home of a prominent falconer. A cleric at the temple can initiate Lurk into drawing spells from the sun, though this would impart a Lawful alignment. (Your choice on whether to do that.) 

They also teach a bit about Horizonbird. He is a god of both protection and vengeance, who spends most of his time flying around the world tracking down demons. His eyes possess great power. People sacrifice to him by giving food or treasure to hunting birds, to carry up to his palace in the stars; people pray to him for protection against curses. (Ask for more details in disc if you wish.)

Badger talks to the cults of Beacon City, looking for a cleric who can help clear the ghouls in his copper mine. Most cults say they don't have the resources, but he gets the following responses: 

Cult of the Sea: One cleric is willing to be recruited as a retainer: Eric Rivers, a level 7 Neutral cleric who wears plate armor and a shield, and has magic messenger boots (run as fast as a riding horse for 12 hours, then have to rest for a day). He says he used to be even more powerful, but he lost a few levels fighting a nest of vampires. He is afflicted with wanderlust and must check morale every season or wander off. 

Cult of the Psychopomp: They will send an anti-undead strike team to clear the ghouls, at the cost of 25 coin per ghoul. They also ask that you agree to shut the mine down if they ever warn that it’s digging too deep, to prevent balrog “type VI demon” incursions.  

Knighto takes a tour of his lands. The destruction outside the towns is extensive. All hexes that don’t have a town are basically depopulated, and will soon be reclaimed by the wilderness. The main resources of the kingdom are farmlands, all hexes next to the lake or the rivers are good for crops and herds. Woods are scattered across the land, enough for people to build houses and burn firewood in winter, but not thick enough for hunting or the kind of lumber needed for large-scale projects. Hexes 4.8 and 4.10 have a couple abandoned mines, a chalk quarry and coal mine respectively. The quarry is full of giant mosquitos. The rivers and lakes also have plentiful fish, and occasionally the mermen come to trade pearls.

The three towns in his domain are in various states: Silver Lake Abbey is undamaged by the war, and expects a plentiful harvest soon. However, the people are disgruntled; several prominent townsfolk petition Knighto to kick the snake cult out of the abbey, and restore the worship of the river. The town of Newmill is still damaged by the siege, and still has food shortages. With their fields pillaged and many men dead, they expect a scant harvest. They aren’t sure if they’ll have enough food for everyone come winter, and that’s with taxes suspended. Knighto and Mayor Hugo are both currently loved by the town, despite the current state, for liberating the place from orcs and for not charging tax until the town recovers. There is tension between the human townsfolk and orc patrols; there have been a few brawls in the tavern but no one has died. The “town” of Cheer is still barricaded and full of ghouls. Everyone is worried about the locusts, and rumors of evil omens from the coast.

John and the imp sent to spy on him find someone willing to pay a ransom for the worm-wracked wizards he holds captive. Eventually he gets in contact with a pirate ship, encrusted with wailing barnacles; the captain is a man with rubbery skin and sharp teeth. The pirates pay 750 coin for the three, who agree to work as ship wizards.