Belswick 17: online edition

Country's mostly locked down, so we moved our Belswick campaign online. Session 17 took place over two solo sessions, a bunch of emails and a group session via skype (my first ever!). Below is a session report, and I'll write a quick post about I'm moving the game online while trying to keep a tabletop feel later this week.

update: added Ulrike's Vision Brew shop at bottom of the post

HIGHLIGHTS

Lomin Mor's player: "Back in the dress at last! And nobody recognized me...and I'm getting married! 😁 Also some nice fighting, long live uncanny dodge. And it was just cool for all of us to play again. RPG via skype is different, but fun 👍"

Tilly's player: That moment where you ask "can I swing onto the manticore's back" and the DM goes "you can certainly try" and you make that roll...shite, shite, shite! 😂 Great mix of world building, building relations with PCs and NPCs, setup and even some combat"

LAST SESSION

Our stalwart heroes fought off a bunch of devils who had enslaved the One True Hydra and sent it to steal the King's Spear together with the royal shieldmaiden. NATURALLY this fight involved the druid hugging and freeing the firespewing dragon, losing his left arm in the process.

Meanwhile the party cleric banished the devil Count Naberius (reskinned Hobgoblin Warlord with dominate powers), took his skull and magic whip as souvenirs, then turned around and made a deal with the Count's servant spined devils to serve him for a year and a day.

These guys are barely level 5, by the way. You don't have to have tons of hit points or special powers to have epic adventures. Actually, the fact that the characters are still fragile only adds to the excitement when they take on these grandiose challenges.

Home base: Crossroads in the east of the barony. Big festival and pit fight: Walden town in the west - about 20 miles distant.

CHARACTERS

• Tilbørd "Tilly" Miven Björnsson, human bard and knowledge priest of the Authority. Survivability of a wet paper towel and arguably the most dangerous of the entire party. Fervent maker of deals with warlock spirits, lich-priests, devils, ghouls, faeries and more
• Mike, human druid with mild psychic powers after a nightmarish cult sacrificed his entire village to raise their star god
• Shams, dwarf fighter/arcane knight from the Principality of Stone, opening a trade route with Belswick now that there's war brewing with the southern kingdom Arrayne
• Mr. Lomin Mor / Lady Olga, Elf from Arrayne who has been impersonating the (deceased) Lady Olga of the fief one over
• Guy, human diviner wizard with mild psychic powers after a nightmare-filled youth as heir to a lord in Arrayne
• Aju, sharkling barbarian: formerly a shark from an underwater kingdom, now under a fading spell that turned him into a person for about a year  (real life got in the way and Aju's player had to bow out of the group for the time being. I'll arrange a proper send-off for Aju.) 

Remote play rig for this game: one laptop for my notes and my own skype connection, and a separate laptop with a webcam on a tripod to be a battlecam and to share images. Ran the entire thing over skype with physical dice. Might consider moving to Roll20 or somesuch if we end up remote gaming more often, but for now this worked just fine.

THIS SESSION

We're time-skipping through the entire winter, to keep the in game and table calendars sort of synced. Lots of downtime + two solo sessions means that there's quite some secret goings-on. Select to read if you want. I'll write up the group session first, solo dealings after that.

Group session:

•  The big event of the season will be the midwinter Candle Night celebration, with a tournament and airing of griefs for the nobility, a big Candle Fair for the barony, and the dark rural Devil's Dance with a shady market and illegal (possibly heretical) fighting ring.
• The group heads to Walden town and lose themselves in the fair. Lomin(Olga) and Tilly talk to the wizard Hildebrand, purveyor or magical goods and owner of Hildebrand's Arcana. The wizard has many items for sale, like scrolls, wands and other tools. (List at the bottom of the post).
• The bard Denmir is very curious to hear about the group's exploits. Tilly leaks some information from a letter between a nun and her superior in the secret-keeping Order of the Moth, but keeps the truly juicy bits to himself. He does confide that his friends and himself were behind solving the riddle of the cursed water in Corsewall.
• Shams takes in the sights, wandering the fair and looking at contests of strength and archery, sampling the many foods (much more diverse than those found underground!). She hears Lomin's voice and turns, but only sees the Lady Olga. The lady is not as spry as she used to be, but her frame still shows her old warrior strength. (Lucky check to hear a shade of Lomin's familiar voice, but then the insight check to pierce Lomin's disguise failed!) 
• Lomin travels as Lady Olga and meets with her neighbour Lord Kerjules to discuss a political marriage: both know that Olga is old and frail, without heir or family to take over. What's more, there's a contestant of her rule from her late husband's side of the family: Sir Drake Selbern intends to challenge for fief Culfield during the Candle tourney. The pair decide to try and head off this challenge by each gifting 1000 gp to Baron Walden to allow them to marry. Fief Culfield will then fall to Kerjules should Olga pass away. That is, if Baron Walden accepts this plan!

 

I had a pit fight planned, but with two players dropping out, we decided to postpone that to next session. Ran a mini combat at the end of the session which was great fun.

• Meeting up, Tilly, Shams and Lomin decide to visit Devil's Dance in the woods outside Walden town. Between the trees is a dimly lit fair with a potion brewer and fortune teller, a chuckling and whistling ravenling tattooist, and of course the barkers for the Devil's Ring gladiator fight! I stole the idea of a fighting pit from Critical Role. Normally I'm quite conservative with encountering 'weird' beasties like oozes, undead and mythical beasts, but in a dedicated monster fight, anything goes.
• The real three round, 2000 gp prize fight against various creatures from the dark ("all of their own free will!") will take place one night hence. 25 gp per fighter to join the ring: the group discusses and decides to join! 
• We decide that we'd like to run this fight with more players present than the current three. Shams does send her imp familiar Ricky into the Devil's caves where the opponents to the fight are housed. Ricky returns, having seen a giant two-headed crocodile, a raging armor-plated bulette, three giant creepy caterpillars and an empty armor with hellish red light coming from its visor. And that's just the possible opponents round one! Deeper in the caves, Ricky spotted a chimera with dragon, goat and lion's head. 

• Tonight, there's a warm-up with all the contestants:
• the brash Hateful Hammers have a rough time fighting a minotaur. Their dragonling fihgter is hurt badly, but they manage to take down the warrior. A cowled cleric from the Devil's Ring heals the minotaur and sends it back into the holding caves.
• the slick Autumn Shadows decide to bide their time and do not enter this round
• the proud eagleling noble Tyaak and his Grey Whispers manage to outwit a minor basilisk. Again, the beast is healed by the two cowled healers of the Devil's Ring.
• my players have to pick a name for their group! They go back and forth - the Crossroads Killers, the Frosty Five, the Crossroads Chosen - finally they settle on the Winter Children. Their opponent is an enraged manticore! The beast flies over the frontlining Shams the Dwarf to shoot iron tail spikes at Lomin. Lomin's arrows hit home, Mike fails to hurt the beast's wing, Shams sends fiery blasts into the sky, and Tilly manages to jump on the thing's back as it rakes him with its claws. The Manticore plans to take the priest high into the sky, but Tilly is faster and burns the life out of the beast with an overclocked Inflict Wounds. The spell is so much more than the manticore could take that it plummets out of the sky, lifeless; not a usual outcome with two dedicated healers present, but also not unheard of.

Crowd ready for blood

Side events:

• I harrass the group with costs of upkeep and lodging: 24 gp for four months of living poorly, or 120 gp for a modest lifestyle. The group decides to liquidate the few art pieces they found on their adventures to pay for winter lodgings. (Mike has bought his own terrain as an animal sanctuary. His tenants on their cottage farms that provide decent shelter and food, so Mike pays nothing!)
• The first omens of war make themselves known. Lomin and Tilly both encounter prisoner escorts on the road; proud Arraynian warriors with a Griffon tattoo are taken north for interrogation and possibly hostage exchanges. There's a scuffle as a seedy gooseling sergeant and rabbitling corporal try to fill their roster by drafting the village smith Lambert, but both Shams and Tilly offer a minor bribe and convince the pair that the smith is better off crafting tools and weapons.
• Lomin gets taken aside by his elder brother, bishop Urael, who wants to inspect the holy sword Lomin found in the tomb of Umtak Ktharl. Urael informs Lomin that the Order of Saint Kurelda would be very interested in the blade. Lomin wants to keep the find a secret for now. Urael replies that once the Authority puts such a relic into play, it is hard to keep hidden.
• Lomin contacts his old guild master of the Violet Cloud thieves, the owlling Aran Linvail. The pair meet up in the Gilded Goose in Badlesmere and talk of old times.
• Aran can arrange for a pommel gem that hides Lomin's conspicuous sword with an illusion. In return, he wants 500 gp and Lomin's promise to take on a few tasks for him; nothing wildly illegal, but there is a safe house that has fallen silent and could bear checking out. Lomin will ask his friends to join in for 250 gp.
• Shams gets an audience with Baron Radnor, which is just one of the titles of Young King Cedric the Meek of Pembroke. They sketch the outlines of a trade agreement: Pembroke agreed to stop trade with the Dwarves 30 years ago to win peace with Arrayne. With the king's last peace negotiation failed, the Dwarves stand ready to trade again. A trade house will be set up.
• Shams receives a speaking stone from her partner Dan deLion, sage and future master of the Dwarf trade house. The stone allows her to talk for 2 minutes with its partner stone, owned by Shams' mentor and aunt Tole in the Marble Library. Tole is proud of Shams for escorting (most of) the trade delegation to Pembroke, and sends her mighty warhammer as a gift. Both Dwarves can summon the thing to their hands from any distance, and they can even put small items (as big as a thumb) in the handle for transport.

One one one sessions:

Tilly the priest: 

• donates 50 gp to Father Eustace of the local church
• goes on a pilgrimage to get rid of the necrotic energy still coursing through his body. Death & Dismemberment table + nearly killed by necrotic energy = much win. Tilly actually seeks out the Radiant Maiden, his warlock patron who has been curing an outbreak of plague in the halfling settlement of Hay. The Maiden is sad that Tilly didn't manage to "free" (kill) the Hydra, but cures him of his affliction anyway. She truly cannot abide suffering. But if a chance presents itself to end the Hydra, rumored to be an elemental keystone to the Authority's power, she does expect Tilly to take it...
• talks with Sir Kerjules (of Tilly's fief Culfield) and writes to Lady Liselle (newly-wed daughter in law to the local Baron) about setting up The Open Book Orphanage, a cloister school / orphanage where Tilly can teach kids to read and write and send them out to learn from local craftsmen. Offer applauded and for a mere 500 gp, building of the 50 5ft^2 structure can begin. Revenue after all upkeep, wages and taxes is a mere 5 sp a month, unless Tilly adds another 500 gp to get himself appointed as abbot, in which case he can rake in 100 gp a month.
  Liselle added that she likes the idea of someone she can trust close to the neighbouring fief Witmarrow (lord Vennax was involved in a kidnap attempt against her).
• gathers information on the knight who summoned Count Naberius, Dread Sir Ulric and Sir Vennax by sending his two spined devils flying into the region
• talks to Orbat the inn keep and arranges a secret site to drop his more heretical property; Tilly has let the widow Tillinghast's unused shack in the woods south-west of town
• chats with Jacques Cousteau the ghoul and travels with him through the ghoul tunnels to the monthly ghoul market, where he sees many marvels and asks about turning Naberius' skull and horns into magical items.
  Both Vespero the Antiquarian (an ancient man wearing a plague doctor outfit) and the morbidly pale and obese demon thing called the Skinsmith can arrange for the crafting. The Skinsmith also offers the option of bringing the deceased back to life - in return for getting to add a modification to their body of his own choice.

Mike the druid:

• performs a rite to regain his left arm by contacting the three winter fae Sorya, Kata and Illyria. At midnight on the new moon, he calls their names thrice and sits in his cabin as the temperature drops far, far below freezing. The sisters agree to build an arm out of freshly wept snow, ice shards from a frozen brook and fresh blood - if Mike agrees to pay them.
• Daugher Illyria wants Mike's love: he is now cursed and cannot love or be loved.
• Mother Kata wants his warmth for the winter: keeping warm will twice as much food and wood for the fire. 
• Grandmother Sorya wants Mike to perform a service: he is to steal the food stores of a local lord and distribute the food to the common people. Sorya loans Mike a small burlap sack which is bigger on the inside to transport the food.
• Payments agreed and made, the three winter fae weep snow for muscles, gather ice shards for bones and draw Mike's blood to bring the new arm to life. After the grueling ordeal, the druid has a left arm again!
• rumors about Mike regaining his arm turn ugly. People no longer love the folk hero, even if they admire his prowess. One-legged Father Eustace makes the trek to Mike's animal sanctuary to see what's what. The former soldier becomes convinced that Mike made a deal with some eldritch power, but also sees the druid's good heart. Eustace lets Mike know that there will always be shelter in the church, and informs his congregation that Mike was blessed with a healing miracle.
• Arm restored, Mike goes to Annabelle the potion maker and asks her to brew a potion that can transport something huge and valuable out of a room too small to pass. His goal is to free the basilisk of the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, but the 1000 gp dimension door potion is too rich for him; he'll settle for Reduction potions. Annabelle will have to gather ingredients first, she says.
• Thinking to scout ahead, Mike makes it to the Tomb, only to find that a pack of bandits has moved in! They've even cleared the blockage that the party made in the tomb's back entrance. Then Annabelle shows op with a pig in tow, passes some coin to the bandits and heads inside to come out an hour later with two potions in her satchel. Mike rushes back to town to buy them off of her.
• Mike returns to the tomb, shivering in the mildly cold air because of his deal with the winter sisters. He evades the bandits, takes the tomb's main entrance and sees the hammer trap restored. Trying to disarm it, he's ambushed by a wailing, glooping black ooze and an enraged snakeman skeleton with a vicious battleaxe. Summoning mist, he manages to evade the pair and sneaks in further to the basilisk room. 
• The titanic beast recognizes Mike's smell from earlier contact and allows him to feed it a reduction potion. Reduced from elephant to dog size, it can easily slip its enormous adamantine chain and collar. Mike carries the tiny earth dragon outside and helps it evade the bandits by running off in Elk form.
• Returning to its regular shape, The One True Basilisk finds itself in the open for the first time since a thousand years. It plays with the nearby trees, then strains and focuses - and on the horizon, a single tree on a hilltop turns to stone. Rumbling in elemental, the Basilisk tells Mike it will make its way to the high mountains. It will remember the smell of this tiny thing that set it free.

LOOT, STRANGE SHOPS AND THEIR STOCK

Hildebrand's Arcana
Master Hildebrand of Walden can craft magic items up to Rare level.

• spell scrolls of abjuration, divination and transmutation: 50 gp x spell level
• Xanathar's Guide: boots of false tracks, cloak of billowing, dread helm, horn of silent alarm, rope of mending: 100 gp
• shield +1: 350 gp
• weapon +1: 500 gp
• ring of swimming or ring of jumping: 400 gp
• wand of detect magic, secrets or magic missiles: 500 gp
• boots of the winterlands: 375 gp
• circlet of blasting: 600 gp
• armor +1: armor cost + 500 gp
• weapon +1: weapon cost +750 gp
• wand of binding: 750 gp

Ulrike's Vision Brew

• 5 sp for a fortunetelling by Ulrike
• 50 gp: potions of comprehension, false life, hate, healing 2d4+2, love
• 100 gp: energy resistance, giant size, glibness, healing 4d4+4, levitation, mirror image, shrink, silver a weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition, water breathing
• 500 gp: deep sleep, ethereality, flight, haste, transformation: rat

The Ghoul Market
Prospero the Antiquarian can obtain anything and everything ancient and magical - for a price.
The Skinsmith is a master of taking bodies or body parts and turning them useful and strange.
The other vendors change from market to market.
If you're strapped for cash, you can exchange 1 ability point for 250 gp at the Ghoul market.

Prospero and the Skinsmith had ideas on how to alter Naberius' remains:

From Naberius' skull:

• Goggles of Night 400 gp, OR
• Helm of Telepathy 500 gp

From Naberius' horns: (two horns, need one horn per item:)

• carve into Pipes of Haunting 350 gp
• grind into Dust of Choking and Sneezing, 2 doses for 2x100 gp
• ignite into Eversmoking Bottle 250 gp
• reinforce into Horn of Avernus (reskinned silver Horn of Valhalla - 2d4+2 berserkers) 1200 gp

Party's magic items
See also

From last session:

• Slavetaker, 700 gp: the commanding whip of the devil Count Naberius (Tilly)
• Waveheart, 700 gp: necklace that allows water breathing, fast swimming and summoning a wall of water (Shams)

Earlier:

• bronze scrying bowl that shows a target's deepest fear (Guy)
• cloak of fire resistance (Mike)
• Ebon Codex, book that opens route to extradimensional library (Tilly)
• Hand of the Oathbreaker Backstabber - advanced Hand of Glory (Tilly)
• Torch of Saint Kurelda, +2 sun sword (Lomin)
• throwing dagger of returning (Aju)
• Spellbook with 6 wizard spells (Guy)
• The Injector Pike with 3 doses of acid (???)
• 2x potion of stone to flesh (???)
• potion of mellowjuice: deep sleep / hallucinations (???)
• boots of elvenkind (Lomin)
• stone of good luck (Tilly)
• potion of flight, 1hr (???)
• scroll of rope trick (???)
• red bottle imp, rumor spreader (Tilly)
• longbow +1 (Lomin)
• twin daggers: parrying dagger, dagger of sneak attacks (Lomin)

Belswick 16: free that Hydra before it burns us to a crisp

Let's try something else for this Belswick session report. My very short summary is below, and some of my players give their personal highlights for the session.

CHARACTERS

• Tilly, human knowledge priest of the Authority and fervent maker of deals with warlock spirits, lich-priests, ghouls and more
• Mike, human druid with mild psychic powers after a nightmarish cult sacrificed his entire village to raise their star-god
• Shams, dwarf fighter/arcane knight from the Principality of Stone, opening a trade route with Belswick now that there's war brewing with Arrayne
• Mr. Lomin Mor / Lady Olga, Elf from southern kingdom Arrayne who is impersonating the (deceased) Lady Olga of the fief one over
• Guy, human diviner wizard with mild psychic powers after a nightmare-filled youth as heir to a lord in Arrayne
• Aju, sharkling barbarian: formerly a shark from an underwater kingdom, now under a fading spell that turned him into a person for about a year

PREVIOUSLY 

Last session:

• Group came up from the Tomb of Umtak Ktharl bearing gifts and scars.
• Players met local Sir Justin who asked them to escort a baron (the king in disguise, back from a final failed peace negotiation). Also a bishop (Lomin's long-lost brother Urael) and the vampire saint Cascarrion.
• Party ends up in a 'save the maiden' scenario when The One Hydra Coruscon kidnaps the king's shieldmaiden Rosaly, who was carrying the King's Spear.

Gorgeous Hydra mini courtesy of Lomin Mor's player. Terrain all Dwarven Forge: dungeon bridge, stairs and cavern elevation blocks as a quicky cave entrance. (The actual cave entrance piece was already part of another build.)

THIS SESSION

• Hydra retreats to huge cave with underground lakelet, stone cliff, altar. Party follows and finds devil Count Naberius holding Rosaly and the King's Spear, demanding a life for a life. 
• Tilly offers service, backstabs devil. Exactly no-one is surprised. Fight erupts, Naberius and two spined devils flee, Tilly goes invisible and steals the King's Spear.
• Naberius summons Hydra to fight party with fire and fang. Party spots iron chain around the hydra's necks, controlling it. Shams and Mike hack and shapeshift to sunder chain. Hydra fights back, takes off Mike's entire left arm. Titanic monster, it took minor damage - the group was too focused on recovering the King's Spear and trying to free the beast from it's magic binding.
• Tilly kills Naberius mid-reinforcement summons, intimidates two spined devils into serving him for a year, rushes out a contract.
• Hydra, freed, jumps into lakelet and swims down deep tunnel. Mike follows, comes to an understanding, finds shiny necklace on way back and gives it to Shams.
• Tilly harvests Naberius' magic whip, skull and horns for later use.
• Party returns the King's Spear to its owner.

Overview of this session's terrain. Inspired by Critical Role sessions 39 (Hydra!) and 55 (cave), this took one set each of Dwarven Forge Mountain Cliff, Mountain Elevation and (old) Cavern Set, with some minor pieces like dungeon floors and sewer walls to fill out the floor and make the entrance tunnel. I'd completely run out of "unworked stone" pieces by that point, but this stuff works together beautifully. Dwarven Forge sure is expensive and I pick carefully what to buy, but it's very useful to make a location come to life!

MIKE THE DRUID'S PLAYER REMEMBERS:

Mr Lomin Mor was reminded that giving a druid a pat on the back is not always a good idea, especially when said druid has recently lost his left arm. Luckily for him the resulting heat metal punisment only means he has to get a new scabbard for his mighty magical longsword.

Shams the dwarf heroically climbed the Hydra and hacked through the iron binding chain. Then she spotted Tilly making a deal with two spined devils in a side room. Wonder what she'll do with that info?

As usual Tilly offered his service to a mighty devil. And after doing something mildly heroic by grabbing the spear (although invisible at the time, so we have no idea ;), he was knocked down by a thunderwave spell and flew a couple of feet down and that hurt...probably the last time he'll do anything heroic ;)

Mike: from trying to poison a devil (immune) to thinking it was an even better idea to jump on a flaming Hydra, we can safely say there have been better days for the druid. Especially after losing his left arm to the Hydra! Then again, resquing the Hydra from magic bindings and even talking to it afterwards made the Mike's day. And to be honest making Lomin the elf sweat a bit with a heat metal spell was icing on the cake.

Close-up of the fight. Check out the paper Printable Heroes mini being NOMMED by that absolutely magnificent beast.
Terrain all Dwarven Forge again, except the homemade wooden walkway inspired by the Cardboard DM.

TILLY'S SECRETS:

Pretty much all of this is unknown by the other characters and sometimes even players. But we're all adults who can handle these things.

Tilly received a vision shortly before entering the Hydra cave. One of his benefactors had some information and a request. The Hydra apparently is one of several legendary creatures, dragons in fact, forming part of a seal formed a long time ago. This seal prevents certain things from progressing, and the creatures need to be killed to solve this.

Tilly promised to try, knowing he himself had no chance. And knowing this would place him in direct opposition to Mike the druid. Mike wants to save and preserve these creatures. The Hydra, but also the Basilisk concerning which the two of them have an existing deal.

Confronting the Devil Count Naberius Tilly knew he was at great risk. His main focus was getting close to the relic spear of the King, saving the shield maiden Rosaly was a nice bonus when thinking about the impression our group would make with the King and Bishop.

During the fight the only thing that kept him alive was hiding with the spear while invisible. Feeling out the spear with arcane senses during the fight gave some useful insights, especially when combined with the earlier assessment by Mike and Guy that it was fake..

Had Mike been in mortal peril sooner, he might have been able to sway the rest to kill the Hydra – but at that point everyone was dangerously hurt.

The summoning ritual performed by Naberius lured him back into danger, but allowing the devil to call in reinforcements or escape would definitely leave a bad impression. Fortunately Naberius had already been badly hurt and one strong Inflict Wounds ended his existence. For now.
 

Not only did Tilly collect some body parts for future use from the count, he used the defeat to cow the two Spine devil bodyguards into service. How useful they might be remains to be seen.

 

DM'S PERSONAL FAVES:

Loved when Tilly used Shams' familiar Ricky as a seeing eye imp in the pitch black cave.

Beautiful bit of friends-making when the party returned the King's Spear to Rosaly and gives her the honour of carrying it out of the Hydra cave and to the waiting king Cedric the Meek.

Par for the course work by Mike (save the poor Hydra!) and Tilly (devils on the loose? quick, whip up a contract with them!). Solid heroics by Shams the Dwarf, hanging onto the Hydra's iron chain while hacking away at it with their mighty greatsword in the other hand.

5e haven turn: things to do during downtime

My players are putting down roots. No, not in the half-treant kind of way (although I wonder about our druid), but in the sense of building a place for themselves in the local community. Which means that downtime to do things around the village is just as interesting as a good adventure.

Here's a menu of options to give some more crunch to downtime. The framework is Papers & Pencils' Haven Turn, reworked for D&D 5e and my own campaign specifically. See this as a starting point, not a list that limits what is possible.

DOWNTIME: PCS IN THE DRIVERS SEAT

Papers and Pencils has his haven turn as one of the units of in-game time; combat round, exploration turn, wilderness travel watch, haven turn. His haven turns 'round out' the rest of the month until the next adventure.

In my view, haven turns or downtime are stretches of low-risk, time. Narratively, they work as a counterpoint to short, high-risk adventures. The players are in the driver's seat during a haven turn and can set long term plans in motion. Haven turns can morph into planning sessions and regular adventures or the other way around. They take place between more phrenetic and high-risk travel through dangerous terrain, dungeon delves, heists and so on.

As in P&P's original, players get one free haven turn for every two sessions spent adventuring (round up); they can take more haven turns, but run the risk of complications as they pay attention to their own affairs instead of to dastardly plots.

WHAT YOU CAN DO IN A HAVEN TURN

Haven turns are 'enough time to take care of some affairs'; they round out the rest of the month until the next adventure begins, disaster happens, players embark on a trip to clear out a wyvern's nest and so on.

To structure things, the DM goes around the table to ask how everyone wants to spend their haven turn; once there's a good overview, you then play out or summarize the results. Player actions can take negligble time, half a haven turn or an entire haven turn.

If the players want to take more haven actions than they have time for, they can choose to take another haven turn or break up part of their actions to be completed in a future haven turn.

Finally, if you have a background timer for war, plague or intrigue, roll an appropriate encounter.

Haven free actions
Cost negligable time during a haven turn. Basically a reminder to do your bookkeeping.

• heal up and recover from temporary minor injuries
• receive rewards for completing quests
• pay upkeep for your lifestyle
• earn revenue from investments
• pay taxes and tithes and confess your sins
• develop new spells or potion recipes in your workspace as part of leveling up
• write new spells into your spellbook

Haven actions
These take up half a haven turn each. A player can take an action marked * twice a haven turn to make faster progress in training/crafting.

• buy basic gear, spells and potion recipes
• training (see below) in a new skill/language/tool *
• work on creating items such as potions and potions (see below) *
• gather information by talking to NPCs
• recruit NPCs for an adventure

Haven extended activities
These activities take up a full haven turn or more. Activities can be spread out over multiple haven turns if players want to also spend time on other activities.

• get a curse lifted or a major injury healed: 1 full haven turn
• work on an investment or buy yourself into high office: 1 full haven turn
• buy or expand your homes and manor: 1 full haven turn

Training

Training a new ability generally takes time, a trainer and money to pay them. You can train two abilities simultaneously by splitting your time.

• write a spell you have access to into your spellbook: (50 gp + 2 hours) * spell level
  (here for completeness' sake)
• language or tool proficiency: 250 gp and 1.5 full haven turns
• skill: 500 gp and 1.5 full haven turns
• saving throw proficiency: 1500 gp and 2 full haven turns 
• ability score: increase an ability score by 1, up to 20: (new score) x 100 gp and 1.5 haven turns
• feat: 1500 gp and 3 full haven turns

 Crafting items 
You're creating a magic item or an alchemical potion, or crafting a regular item. The item's cost in raw materials is half its sale value.

• Crafting a magic item takes a fullhalf haven turn per category of rareness. You need a minimum caster level to craft a magic item or potion, given in the table below.
• Crafting weapons or regular items takes a full haven turn. (5e PHB p149-150)
• Crafting light or medium armor takes a full haven turn, heavy armor takes 2 full haven turns.

Buying or commissioning a magic is a matter of finding the right person and paying them for their time - in coins, gems, art or most likely all that and favors. The price is the sale value plus or minus a few percent for haggling or insulting the master crafter. The crafter may not have the item in stock, lack ingredients, require a favor, etc. etc.

 Magic items

level	rarity	item sale value (gp)
3	common	50-100
3	uncommon	100-500
6	rare	500-5000
11	very rare	5000 - 50000
17	legendary	50000+

 Potions

level	rarity	potion value (gp)
1	common	50
3	uncommon	100
5	rare	500
7	very rare	1000
9	legendary	10000

HAVEN COMPLICATIONS

Spend too much time away from your troubles, and they will multiply and seek you out. The first haven turn per two sessions (round up) is free of hassle, but take extra haven turns and you can expect complications.

1. War or plague brewing, or worse? Roll an appropriate encounter. (war, plague)
2. Check for haven complications on the table below.

Haven complications (d4)

1. natural disaster strikes
2. spree of crime and violence
3. relieve an ongoing condition
4. you hear a rumor

Where? (d8)
1-3) home town
4-6) barony   
7-8) duchy

Who? (d8)
1) religious
2-3) nobility
4-6) commoner
7) wizards
8) monster

1) Natural disaster strikes (d10)
Conditions with an * are ongoing until relieved by a roll on the haven complication table or resolved by the players. Dermine the where and who with the tables above.

1. drought * - crops and livestock hit, rationing, tax on well use, drinking waste water, disease
2. earthquake - buildings wrecked, landmarks altered, roads broken up
3. famine * - crop failure or supply issues drive up prices. Looting, raiding, starvation, death
4. fire - injury and death, landmark buildings and town quarters wrecked, forests or fields burned
5. flood - river overflows or lake rises, sweeps away travelers, buildings, roads, food and drink
6. monster rampage * - a plague of many or rampage of one; hides well or is plain unbeatable
7. pestilence * - a minor pestilence, can grow into a real plague if unchecked for 4 haven turns
8. storm - lightning, blizzard, gale force winds whip the sea, land, travelers, buildings
9. dread omen - everyone saw the comet, eclipse, mass bird death or mirage, speculation is rife
10. unsettling prophecy - a creepy prediction is making the rounds, but none know its meaning

2) Spree of crime and violence (d8)

1. burglary streak * - a ruthlessly clever gang is taking on well-guarded marks
2. high profile assassination - person of power and influence is murdered - why, and who's next?
3. arson - someone with a deep love of fire is burning down property left and right
4. robber band * - violent and with undeniable panache, always a step ahead of the lord's men
5. serial murders * - with a signature move, hunting tax men, spiderlings, whores or sailors
6. insurrection * - peasant uprising, guild protests, merchant embargo or mercenary troubles
7. inquisition * - the Order of the Ivory Candle investigates rumors of heresy and apostasy
8. warlockry * - a dangerous warlock or necromancer walks the land and none are safe

3) Relieve an ongoing condition
An ongoing natural disaster or crime spree ends.


4) You hear a rumor (d4)

1. Travelers or a bard bring useful news. Ask the DM for a rumor about anything you like.
2. The bard has information about a cool dungeon. Co-create it.
3. There is talk of a magic item auction - perhaps the ghouls or fairies know more.
4. You meet a group of people willing to follow you into danger in return for pay.