Exploration
When the company sets out on a journey that requires a day or more of traveling, the game changes to the journey frame of play. The party engages in their journey as a group, making most of their decisions together. The Judge tracks their movement through the world on a hex map hidden from the players.
Each round in the journey frame represents a day, and each day is divided into thirds:
Morning: first light until afternoon.
Evening: evening, dusk, and the first hours of darkness.
Night: the darkest hours before sunrise.
The party can take three travel actions each day: one in the morning, one in the evening, and one at night. They choose their actions from the following list:
Camp. Find resources and explore locally.
March. Continue traveling.
Night's Rest. Sleep to prevent endurance loss.
On a typical travel day, the party advances in the morning, camps in the evening, and rests at night, though they may spend their time differently to cover more ground or camp longer. Each of the three actions is described below.
When the company takes the camp action, each character may perform one camp activity chosen from the options on this page.
You forgo performing your own camp activity to help an ally with their own. Describe what you do to help your ally. If their activity requires a skill check, they gain one additional spark on a success.
If you have an alchemy set at hand, you can spend time to continue or complete a project for a concoction you have already started. Spend 1 ingredient and make an Alchemy check. You cannot start a new alchemy project in this way.
✖ Failure The ingredient is wasted and you make no progress.
⬖ Conflict Make 1 progress.
✦ Triumph Add +1 progress.
⛤ Spark Add +1 progress per spark.
You start crafting project to create a crude tool or armament from whats at hand. Spend 1 material and make a Crafting check.
✖ Failure The material is wasted and you make no progress.
⬖ Conflict Make 1 progress.
✦ Triumph Add +1 progress.
⛤ Spark Add +1 progress per spark.
You devote time to searching for edible plant life and useful ingredients for alchemy. Make a Survival check.
⬖ Conflict Gain 1 ingredient.
✦ Triumph Gain 2 ingredients instead.
⛤ Spark Add +1 ingredients per spark.
If you are near a body of water, you can fish for food. Make a simple Survival check. You gain a crude ration on a success.
You attempt to find food by hunting wild game. Make a Survival check.
✖ Failure Lose 1 endurance.
⬖ Conflict Gain 1 crude ration.
✦ Triumph Gain 2 crude rations instead.
⛤ Spark You don't lose any endurance, or gain +1 ration per spark.
You devote extra time to resting with your companions and bolstering their spirits.
Choose one ally, describe what you do to lift their spirits, and make a check of Charms. The Judge may let you make a different check if it makes sense for the approach you describe.
⬖ Conflict Remove a plight from an ally or restore 1 endurance.
✦ Triumph Gain both effects.
⛤ Spark Affect +1 ally per spark.
You use the odds and ends you've scrounged up to craft a number of makeshift torches.
Make a simple Crafting check and spend 1 material. You do not need to spend material if you are in an area with loads of wood. On a success you create 3 crude torches.
You rest while others labor so that you can keep watch during the next night's rest action. When you take this action you must eat, making a supply check for a ration in yours or another character's inventory. Afterward you gain all the benefits of a night's rest, and you can keep watch without penalty.
If every member takes this action, you can simply take a night's rest instead of the camp action.
You search the area for discarded leather, metal, and other useful materials. Make a Perception check.
⬖ Conflict Gain 1 material.
✦ Triumph Gain 2 materials instead.
⛤ Spark Add +1 materials per spark.
You venture out to get a better sense of the region. Make a Perception check.
✖ Failure Lose 1 endurance.
⬖ Conflict Choose a benefit that lasts the next full day. The company has no risk of getting lost or the company ignores mixed and rough terrain.
✦ Triumph The company gains both benefits.
⛤ Spark You don't lose any endurance.
You survey the surrounding area for points of interest. Make a Perception check.
⬖ Conflict Learn the closet point of interest to you in your hex and any adjacent hexes. If you have a spy glass, you can choose to center the survey in an adjacent hex and its surrounding hexes instead.
✦ Triumph Learn of the closest 2 points of interest instead.
⛤ Spark Learn of +1 point.
When the players take the march journey action, they break camp and continue their journey. They gain 6 travel points, which they spend to travel into adjacent hexes. A single hex represents 8 kilometres of distance.
A hex with flat terrain costs 1 travel point to enter. Mixed or difficult terrain costs more. If the party doesn't have enough travel points to reach the next hex, their march action ends.
Deserts, plains, and woodlands are flat terrain and cost 1 travel point to traverse through. Forests hills, and swamps are mixed terrain and cost 2 points. Caves and mountains are rough and cost 3 points to travel through.
The company can only take the march action once per day without penalty. Each time they use it beyond the first, each character loses 1 endurance. Any member of the company with a mount can march a second time each day without losing endurance.
Roads wind through multiple hexes and ease passage along them. While the party is following a road, new hexes always cost 1 travel point to enter, even if they contain mixed or rough terrain.
The party must devote a portion of each day to rest in order to avoid losing endurance. This is usually done as the final action of the day, after the march and camp actions.
Taking a night's rest action means a journey action in downtime. You gain the benefits only when you finish the rest. If your rest is disrupted by an encounter, you can resume the rest afterward and still gain the benefits when you finish.
You must eat each time you take a night's rest, making a supply check for a ration in your inventory. If you cannot, lose 1 endurance, but you still gain the benefits.
When you complete a night's rest, you gain these benefits:
Reset Recoveries. Lose all remaining recoveries, then gain a number equal to your current endurance.
Regain Vigor. Fully regain your vigor.
Reset Rising Focus. Erase all checkmarks from your costs on your character sheet.
A character that keeps watch can wake the party in the event of an encounter. A character on watch does not gain the benefit of the rest, unless they took the rest early camp activity earlier in the day.