Downtime and Pastimes

Downtime

Between journeys there is time: days in a town, a week snowed in at a waystation, a season waiting for a road to open. Downtime is how your character uses it.

Spend a full day on one major activity, or half a day each on two minor ones.
Roll only when the outcome is in doubt. With good tools, a teacher, or the right materials, take the listed result without rolling.
Inside a Totem's aura, downtime checks are 2 easier. In Hollowed land they are 2 harder, and some carry risk.
A proper workshop or a guild's shop gives advantage or -2 to the DC.
A failed day is wasted, and complicates things only if that is interesting.

Activities

Craft

Make things. See Skills, Kits and Crafting.

Work a trade

Put your skills to work for pay.

Work	Skills or kits	DC	Pays (on success)
Day labor	Athletics, Survival, any kit	12	5 × (2d6 + your proficiency bonus) Stars, a simple repair, and one local contact.
Skilled contract	Any kit, Lore, Survival	14	5 × (3d6 + proficiency) Stars, and one small job done: an edge sharpened, armor stitched, a ward sign painted.
Specialist work	Artisan or Apothecary	16	10 × (4d6 + proficiency) Stars, and one lasting upgrade: +1 to attack, AC or a save on one party item for the next adventuring day.

Fail by 5 or more and you earn half, and waste 5 × 1d6 Stars of material.

Train a proficiency

Learning takes a teacher or a great deal more time. Finding a teacher is an Influence or Sage check: DC 12 in a town, 14 in a frontier camp. A teacher charges 2 to 5 Rudys a week and usually a favor.

Learn	With a teacher	Alone	Notes
A language	2 weeks, no roll	6 weeks, a DC 14 Intelligence or Wisdom check each week	Conversational after one week, fluent after two.
A kit	2 weeks, a DC 12 Intelligence or Dexterity check each week	6 weeks, DC 14	Advantage with a proper shop. Two failures add a week.
A weapon group	2 weeks, a DC 13 Strength or Dexterity check each week	5 weeks, DC 15	Each success is one step. Three steps and you are proficient.
Armor or shields	3 weeks, a DC 13 Constitution or Strength check each week	6 weeks, DC 15	Two failures add a week.

Weapons are best learned from a weapon master: a veteran of the Watch, a retired Ironveil, an old hunter who will take a student. How long a master takes is theirs to say, and the GM's. The table is a guide, not a promise.

Learn a feat

Some feats can be learned as an apprenticeship, outside of leveling.

Feat	Time and place	Check each week	Cost
Enchanter's Touch	3 weeks in a warded shop	Lore, DC 14	5 to 10 Rudys in reagents
Old World Lorekeeper	3 weeks at an archive or ruin	Lore, DC 14	3 to 5 Rudys for access and copies
Totem-Forged Artisan	3 to 4 weeks at a forge	Artisan, DC 15 (advantage at a guild forge)	8 to 15 Rudys and slag
Totemic Scholar	3 weeks under a mentor	Lore, DC 15	5 Rudys and shard samples
Voice of the Many	2 weeks with a troupe or faction	Influence, DC 14	1 to 4 Rudys, and favors
Wayfinder	2 weeks with rangers	Survival or Wayfarer, DC 14	1 to 4 Rudys, and regional maps

Fail a week by 5 or more and add a week.

Join a guild

Smiths, apothecaries, carters, scribes, masons, hunters, mariners. Pay dues of 1 Rudy a week in a small town or 3 in a city. While paid up you have a proper workshop, a teacher on hand, and posted contracts. Each season the guild asks a favor: a delivery, a repair, an escort, a class taught. Refuse and you lose access for a month.

Scout and map

Task	DC	Time	Gain
Scout a route	13	A day	On your next trip that way, ignore the first forced-march penalty and gain advantage on the first navigation check.
Mark hazards	14	A day	+2 to avoid one known hazard on your next trip: a cliff, a sinkhole, a Hollowed pocket.
Map the approaches	15	A day	Skip one random encounter roll, or gain surprise in the first fight.

Secure the camp

Work	DC	Time	Gain
Windbreak and drainage	12	Half a day	Each long rest here grants 1 temporary hit point the next day.
Cookfire and smoke baffle	12	Half a day	One meal a day grants +1 on the next Constitution save against fatigue or illness.
Hidden approach	14	A day	Advantage against being surprised in camp, and +2 to spot prowlers.
Ward effigies	15	A day	Beasts must pass a DC 12 Wisdom save to approach unseen; on a failure they avoid the camp.
Simple lean-to	12	An hour	Two sleep dry. Rain does not spoil the rest.
Reinforced shelter	15	Half a day	Bark panels, sap glue and packed earth. Light wind and small predators stay out.
Tree platform	15	Half a day	Ropes, branches and sinew. Nothing that hunts on the ground can reach the sleepers.
Totemic hut	18	A day	Bones, glyphs, branches and cloth, raised for ritual. Inside a Totem's aura, the GM may let it strengthen a rite or a Surge.

Bushcraft materials make these easier: harvested parts lower the DC by 2.

Research

Choose a subject: a beast, a place, a faction, something the Totems do.

Depth	Where	DC	Time	Gain
Field notes	Camp or inn	12	Half a day	+1 to your next check about the subject.
Focused study	Archive or guild	14	A day	One useful detail: a weakness, a trigger, a safe approach.
Deep dive	Mentor or library	16	2 days	The party has advantage on its first check against the subject next session.

Research into Hollowed things risks a Minor Overchanneled result on a natural 1.

Recover

Treat wounds: tend your wounds as on a short rest, once a day.
Spark stabilization: a DC 14 Lore check and four hours inside an aura. Ignore the next Minor Overchanneled result you would suffer this week.

Pastimes

Any of these can be wagered on.

Frontiersman Gambit

The tavern game of the Frontier, played with the sixty-card Totemic Deck: six suits (Pillars, Flames, Waves, Winds, Cores and Aberrants) of ten cards, numbered 1 to 10. Ones count as eleven.

Everyone antes. Everyone draws five cards.
Up to three rounds. Each round, everyone commits one or more cards face down, then all reveal at once.
The lowest total is out. Ties for lowest draw one card each until someone is clearly lowest.
After round 1 you must keep at least two cards. After round 2, at least one. In round 3, throw down whatever you have left.
The last player standing, or the highest total in round 3, takes the pot.

The aim is never to be lowest, and to reach the third round with strong cards still in hand.

Between two players, a Gambit is a formal challenge. Best of three is the honor standard. A single round is a street bet.

First Blood

A duel to the first real wound: the first to deal damage equal to a quarter of the other's hit points wins. Initiative is rerolled each round. There are no fatal blows, and no one draws on their Core. A judge both duelists accept watches over it. Spectators may wager, jeer and give advice, but never interfere.

Gauntlet: the winner stays on until wounded to half their hit points, facing one challenger after another.
Blindman's Dance: both duelists blindfolded.

Bottle Run

A line of bottles along a rail at 10, 15 and 20 ft. Each shooter has one pass, one shot or throw or power, to break as many as they can. Clearing the rail is mastery, or luck blessed by the Totem. Ties move the bottles farther out.

Quickdraw Drop

One round, as many shots as you can make. A roll of 20 or more is a bullseye for 3 points, 17 to 19 the inner ring for 2, anything less that hits the target 1.

Flair Contest

An Elementalist's exhibition, three rounds by Church tradition. A judge, often a Totem Warden, names a theme each round, and each contestant performs it with their Elemental Flair, rolling their casting modifier plus proficiency against the DC.

Theme	DC
Great Storm: a local weather of your element	14
Pure Power: break an object or a piece of ground	14
Fantastical Display: anything, as long as it dazzles	15
Twin Forces: two elements at once	16
Bring Balance: subdue a chaos the judge creates	20

A success scores 2, missing by 1 or 2 scores 1, and missing by more scores nothing. Each point of mana spent on the display adds 1. The judge adds a point each for best fit, creative risk, and the crowd's favorite. Damage, disruption, or overchanneling costs a point. Highest after three rounds wins; ties go to a Final Flourish.

Totemic Blackjack

Blackjack, played with a Gambit deck: sixty cards, six suits, ranks Ace to 10. An Ace counts 1 or 11, every other card its rank.

The dealer deals one card to themselves, then two to each player.
Each player in turn draws a card or holds. Go over 21 and you bust, and lose your stake.
Once everyone holds, the dealer draws until they reach 17 or more.
Closest to 21 without going over wins. A tie with the dealer returns the stake. An Ace and a 10 in the first two cards is a blackjack, and pays three to two.