SEASONS CHANGE EXAMPLES

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It's the end of our first session, and we've just finished making and introducing characters. The group

kept focusing on the recent crinwin raids, the abducted children, and the effect this has had on the village. The village starts with 1 Surplus and Fortunes +1.

The group decides that Vahid is the most hopeful (he recently had a breakthrough on his Sanctifying Mark arcanum). He rolls a 7 and picks "unexpected bounty" for the gain. But a threat is also going to make itself known or get worse.

Following the procedure in the First Adventure chapter**, I decide that the real threat is a swyn. It dominated the crinwin and is having them "collect" children. I prep an adventure hook: a trapper (Rheinal) and his son (Pryder) will be out trapping abundant game (the unexpected bounty), when crinwin attack them and drag off Pryder.

During the first session of play, I ask some setup questions (including a love letter for Blodwen), we play out a few scenes to establish everyone's normal lives, and then I drop the hook: someone is shouting for help from the switchback path leading up from the Great Wood…

The PCs do in fact go after the crinwin, tracking them to a Green Lord tomb. They kill the swyn, send the crinwin running, and Return Triumphant with the kids in tow. There's some small-town drama, but the rest of spring is otherwise peaceful. They end the season with 2 Surplus and Fortunes +2.

The long hot days of summer settle upon the land, and the group decides that Rhianna (of all people)

is most content. She rolls an 11, and the group talks about which two gains to pick.

"Can we roll to see how much Surplus we get?" asks Rhianna. They sure can. She rolls 1d4-1 and gets a 1. "Hmm. Okay, let's take another unexpected bounty, and Tor's blessing. I want to start drilling our militia this season."

We reset Fortunes to +1, and the village heads into summer with 4 Surplus.

We talk about what life in Stonetop looks like in summer, about the fine weather, and how that's affecting folk's lives. Rhianna convinces folks to pursue the Well-trained Militia steading improvement, focusing on readiness. This costs 1 Surplus and effectively eats up the village's (and most of Rhianna's) free time for the season.

Vahid reminds Rhianna of her promise to go back to the Green Lord tomb and explore it some more. They do! A missed roll to Seek Insight has me advance towards impending doom and they find signs that the crinwin are still around and their numbers are growing. They reach the tomb, find some valuables, encounter some guardian Fae, and head home. Garet gets mauled by a drake, and dies on the way.

They end the summer with 3 Surplus and Fortunes at +1.

Autumn comes and Vahid is deemed the most determined. He rolls an 8, a gain plus a threat.

"Can we roll for Surplus before we pick?" he asks. No, that roll comes at the end of the season. "We're doing okay for Surplus anyhow. And we've got some loot. Let's go with a trade opportunity!"

For a threat, the crinwin are an obvious choice but I'm not keen on another trip into the Great Wood. During the End of Session, a couple players wished to see more of the world. So, the threat will be a crinwin raid on the village and the opportunity will be in Gordin's Delve.

Alas, Rhianna's player misses our next session. Instead of the crinwin raid, we do a short trip to the Ruined Tower and more of Blodwen's family drama.

The following session starts with the crinwin raid. The recent drilling pays off and they drive the crinwin away. At the end of that session, the merchant Ulna comes back through town with word that the Delve is more desperate for food than usual. The PCs decide to take 1 Surplus and some loot to trade.

Rhianna Muster's the village before they go, reducing their Fortunes to +0. But the trip is successful, and they Return Triumphant laden down with tools, parts, ore, etc. Fortunes goes back to +1.

There's some downtime, and the harvest is soon complete. Vahid rolls 1d4 and gets a 1. Yikes. They're heading into winter with 4 Surplus.

Winter grips the land, and the group decides that Caradoc heartsick over Morwenna calling

things off—is the weariest. He rolls 1d4 + Population (+0) and, oof, rolls a 4. That uses up all their Surplus.

I ask the group why they think they lost so much, and we say that early winter hammers the village with heavy storms and deep deep snow, followed by bitter cold. "But we're okay, right?" asks Blodwen. "We're out of Surplus but we have enough?"

That's true for now, but Caradoc still needs to roll +Fortunes. On a 10+, yeah, they'd be fine. The rest of the winter would be mild and each PC would get to improve a relationship (maybe Caradoc and Morwenna would get back together, or Blodwen would resolve things with Tegwen, or whatever). On a 6-, they'd be in trouble—not only would they need more Surplus, but threats would abound. I'd probably have the crinwin continue to raid the village while bravos from Gordin's Delve came down to extort Stonetop for food it didn't have.

As it happens, Caradoc rolls a 9. The village needs to consume another 1d4+0 Surplus or they'll Meet with Disaster and suffer an additional consequence. "But why bother rolling?" asks Caradoc. "We're already at 0." Ah, but they have until winter's end to come up with the extra Surplus "Oh!" He gets a 2.

"So where do we get more Surplus? In winter?" Well, there are some cave bears with a den not far from town…