MEET WITH DISASTER

This move triggers when something clearly and undeniably bad happens to the steading: a building burns down, the village runs out of food, multiple people die suddenly, someone is killed or goes missing in a horrific or eerie way, etc.

Meet With Disaster doesn't trigger from mere rumor or bad news from abroad, nor from the day-to-day hardships of life. It doesn't trigger when Gorlas fails to come home from checking his traps, or when someone reports seeing a shadowy figure in the Wood.

Meet With Disaster does trigger when a threat looms, people freak out, and the PCs fail to do anything about it. So when Betrys finds poor old Gorlas's body just past the Stream—desiccated, skin slack and hand reaching towards home, every plant within five paces dead and brown and brittle—the PCs best act to prevent panic from spreading.

This sort of thing should never come as a surprise. Show how others really feel and announce trouble. Give the PCs a chance to take charge and calm folks down. But if they don't, or they fail, the steading Meets with Disaster.

Fortunes can't go below -1. If anything would push Fortunes lower than -1, then the steading Meets with Disaster and you choose the result. This applies even if the loss of Fortunes isn't itself particularly disastrous. For example, if Fortunes are already -1 and the PCs Muster the village, that's going to trigger Meet With Disaster unless they pick "everyone's willing to pitch in; don't reduce Fortunes after all."

Any given calamity might impact the steading beyond this move. Like, if Daedra the Red and her bandits raid the village, killing and injuring a number of folks, then you'd mark diminished. If they looted a number of homes, you'd mark lacking. And if they set fire to the granary, then the village's Surplus would be gone. Oh, and also, the village would Meet With Disaster.

It's the morning after the raid, and folks are exhausted, scared, on edge. They've tossed the crinwin corpses off the north-facing bluff, and they're building a pyre for Rheinal. I announce trouble and say that his widow, Sianna, drops to her knees and starts keening. "You can see the fear and the despair catch in people's eyes, as the reality of what happened sinks in. What do you do?"

Blodwen goes to comfort Sianna (and Pryder, who's joined her). Rhianna starts thinking about how to deal with this. But it's Caradoc who steps up. He gives a moving speech, assuring everyone that Rheinal didn't die in vain, how he wouldn't want them to live in fear, and so forth. That feels like Defying Danger with CHA, to me (the danger being that panic spreads), and what do you know, he nails it. A 12!

Folks nod and murmur and soon enough they're singing that same hero's song they sang at Garet's funeral, and building a pyre, and the village does not, in fact, Meet With Disaster.

The next spring, Rhianna Musters the village (reducing Fortunes from +1 to +0, but increasing Defenses to +1). She then sends out patrols, with her crew providing Aid. Nonetheless, she rolls a 5! One of the patrols, led by Lowri, finds a huge set of crinwin nests but they barely escape—and three of the villagers don't. "It… it was bad, boss. It was bad."

Rhianna starts doing damage control, pulling the survivors aside for a private debrief. "Sure, go ahead," I say. "But the village has Met with Disaster. They left three dead neighbors behind, and a number of folks saw them limp home. News is gonna spread." Fortunes goes from +0 to -1, and I give the players a zoomed-out account of the patrol.

When they step out of Rhianna's house, I present a want or need, and describe the crowd that's gathered, including Leuca's and Padrig's families, faces drawn and afraid, murmuring nervously, expecting the worst. "What do you do?"

"We know where the nests are," says Caradoc. "Can't we just gather up the militia, march in there, and burn 'em?"

"You can, but you'll be Deploying twice once to get the militia out there, and once for the actual assault. And if you roll a 6 on either, it'll be bad. Like, 'mark diminished and also Meet With Disaster' bad. And you're already at -1 Fortunes, so I'd pick a consequence. Probably -1 Population because of, y'know, deaths."

"No," says Rhianna. "Too risky. It's got to be us. Vahid... what tricks do you have that can help?"