Procedures

Dungeon Exploration

The Basics

• The dungeon exploration cycle (see below) is divided into a series of Turns, Actions, and their consequences.
• On their turn, a character can move a distance equal to their torchlight’s perimeter (about 40ft), and perform one action. Players can use their action to move up to three times that distance though that will increase the chance of triggering a roll on the Dungeon Events table.
• The Warden should present obvious information about an area and its dangers freely and at no cost. Moving quickly or without caution may increase the chance of encountering a wandering monster, springing a trap, or triggering a roll on the Dungeon Events table.

Although the term “dungeon” is used here, it can mean any dangerous locale (mansions, farmhouses, adventure site, etc).

Dungeon Exploration Cycle

1. The Warden describes the party’s surroundings and any immediate dangers (combat, traps, surprises, etc.). The players then declare their character’s intended movements and actions.
2. The Warden resolves the actions of each character simultaneously, along with any actions that are already in progress. Remember, the Die of Fate can be a useful tool whenever the Warden is in doubt!
3. The players record any loss of resources and any new conditions (i.e. item use, deprivation, etc). The cycle then begins again. If appropriate, the Warden should roll on the Dungeon Events table. Keep common sense in mind when interpreting the results!

Dungeon Events

Exploring a dungeon is always dangerous, and time must always be weighed against the risk of awakening the location’s denizens, natural hazards, and worse.
When the party:

• Spends more than one dungeon cycle in a single room or location
• Moves quickly or haphazardly through a room
• Moves into a new area, level, or zone
• Creates a loud disturbance

Roll on the table below.

1	Encounter	Roll on an encounter table. Possibly hostile. (See Reactions.)
2	Sign	A clue, spoor, track, abandoned lair, scent, victim, etc is discovered.
3	Environment	Surroundings shift or escalate. Water rises, ceilings collapse, a ritual nears completion, etc.
4	Loss	Torches are blown out, an ongoing spell fizzles, etc. The party must resolve the effect before moving on.
5	Exhaustion	The party must rest (triggering another roll on this table), add a Fatigue, or consume a ration.
6	Quiet	The party is left alone (and safe) for the time being.

Actions

• Actions are any non-passive activities, such as searching for traps, forcing open a door, listening for danger, disarming a trap, engaging an enemy in combat, casting a spell, dodging a trap, running away, resting, etc.
• Some actions have special rules (see below), while others may take multiple turns to complete.
• Loud or noticeable actions may also trigger an encounter with the dungeon’s denizens.

Searching

• A character can spend a turn performing an exhaustive search of one object or location in an area, revealing any relevant hidden treasure, traps, secret doors, etc.
• Larger rooms and difficult or complex dungeon terrain may take a few turns to properly search.
• Searching a room first is a safer way to explore the dungeon, but it has a steep cost: time.

Resting

• A character can spend a turn resting to restore all HP.
• A light source and a safe location are required to rest. Present or oncoming danger makes rest impossible.
• Resting does not restore Fatigue, as it is impossible to safely Make Camp in a dungeon.

Panic

• A character that is surrounded by enemies, enveloped by darkness, or facing their greatest fears may experience panic. A WIL save is typically required to avoid losing control and becoming panicked.
• A panicked character must make a WIL save to overcome their condition as an action on their turn.
• A panicked character has 0 HP, does not act in the first round of combat, and all of their attacks are impaired.

Dungeon Elements

Light

• Torches and other radial sources of light illuminate 40ft of dungeon and beyond that only a dim outline of objects. Torches last until they are put out by a character or their environment.
• A torch can be lit 3 times before permanently degrading. A lantern can be relit 6 times per oil can, but requires more inventory slots.
• Characters without a light source may suffer from panic until their situation is remedied.

Doors

• Doors and entryways may be locked, stuck, or blocked entirely. Characters can try to force a door open (or wedge it shut) using available resources (spikes, glue) or through raw ability.
• The party’s marching order determines who is most impacted by whatever lies beyond a door.
• A character can detect, through careful observation (listening, smelling, etc.), signs of life and other hazards through nearby doors and walls.

Traps

• A cautious character should be presented with any and all information that would allow them the opportunity to avoid springing a trap. An unwitting character will trigger a trap according to the fiction, or otherwise will have a 2-in-6 chance.
• Traps can usually be detected by carefully searching a room.
• Damage from traps is taken from Attributes (usually STR or DEX) and not from HP. Armor can reduce damage, but only if applicable (e.g. a shield would not reduce damage from noxious gas).

Wilderness Exploration

Watches

• A day is divided into three watches, called morning, afternoon, and night.
• Each character can choose one Wilderness Action per watch.
• If the characters split up, each group is treated as an independent entity.

Points

• Potential destinations on a map are called points.
• One or more watches may be required to journey between two points on a map, depending on the path, terrain, weather, and party status.
• The party has a rough idea of the challenges involved to get to their destination, but rarely any specifics.

Travel Duration

Travel time in Cairn is counted in watches, divided into three eight-hour segments per day. However, as most parties elect to spend the third watch of the day resting, one can use “days” as a shorthand for travel time.

To determine the distance between two points, combine all penalties from the path, terrain, and weather difficulty tables, taking into account any changes to those elements along the route. For travel via waterways, refer to the surrounding terrain difficulty. For especially vast terrain, assign a penalty of up to +2 watches to the journey.

The weather, terrain, darkness, injured party members, and other obstacles can impact travel or even make it impossible! In some cases, the party may need to add Fatigue or expend resources in order to sustain their pace. Mounts, guides, and maps can increase the party’s travel speed or even negate certain penalties.

Path Difficulty

Path	Penalty	Odds of Getting Lost
Roads	None	None
Trails	+1 Watch	2-in-6
Wilderness	+2 Watches	3-in-6

Path Distance	Penalty
Short	+1 Watch
Medium	+2 Watches
Long	+3 Watches

Terrain Difficulty

Difficulty	Terrain	Penalty	Factors
Easy	Plains, plateaus, valleys	none	Safe areas for rest, fellow travelers, good visibility
Tough	Forests, deserts, hills	+1 Watch	Wild animals, flooding, broken equipment, falling rocks, unsafe shelters, hunter’s traps
Perilous	Mountains, jungles, swamp	+2 Watches	Quicksand, sucking mud, choking vines, unclean water, poisonous plants and animals, poor navigation

Weather

Each day, the Warden should roll on the weather table for the appropriate season. If the “Extreme” weather result is rolled twice in a row, the weather turns to “Catastrophic”. A squall becomes a hurricane, a storm floods the valley, etc.

Weather Type

d6	Spring	Summer	Fall	Winter
1	Nice	Nice	Fair	Fair
2	Fair	Nice	Fair	Unpleasant
3	Fair	Fair	Unpleasant	Inclement
4	Unpleasant	Unpleasant	Inclement	Inclement
5	Inclement	Inclement	Inclement	Extreme
6	Extreme	Extreme	Extreme	Extreme

Weather Difficulty

Weather	Effect	Examples
Nice	Favorable conditions for travel.	Clear skies, sunny
Fair	Favorable conditions for travel.	Overcast, breezy
Unpleasant	Add a Fatigue or add one watch to the journey.	Gusting winds, rain showers, sweltering heat, chill air
Inclement	Add a Fatigue or add +1 watch. Increase terrain Difficulty by a step.	Thunderstorms, lightning, rain, muddy ground
Extreme	Add a Fatigue and add +1 watch. Increase terrain Difficulty by a step.	Blizzards, freezing winds, flooding, mud slides
Catastrophic	Most parties cannot travel under these conditions.	Tornados, tidal waves, hurricane, volcanic eruption

Wilderness Exploration Cycle

1. The Warden describes the current point or region on the map and how the path, weather, terrain, or party status might affect travel speed. The party plots or adjusts a given course towards their destination.
2. Each party member chooses a single Wilderness Action. The Warden narrates the results and then rolls on the Wilderness Events table. The party responds to the results.
3. The players and the Warden record any loss of resources and new conditions (i.e. torch use, deprivation, etc), and the cycle repeats.

Wilderness Events

1	Encounter	Roll on an encounter table for that terrain type or location. Don’t forget to roll for NPC reactions if applicable.
2	Sign	The party discovers a clue, spoor, or indication of a nearby encounter, locality, hidden feature, or information about a nearby area.
3	Environment	A shift in weather or terrain.
4	Loss	The party is faced with a choice that costs them a resource (rations, tools, etc), time, or effort.
5	Exhaustion	The party encounters a barrier, forcing effort, care or delays. This might mean spending extra time (and an additional Wilderness Action) or adding Fatigue to the PC’s inventory to represent their difficulties.
6	Discovery	The party finds food, treasure, or other useful resources. The Warden can instead choose to reveal the primary feature of the area.

Wilderness Elements

Night

• The party can choose to travel during the night and rest during the day, but night travel is far slower and more treacherous!
• Traveling at night is always more dangerous! The Warden should roll twice on the Wilderness Events table.
• Some terrain and weather may be easier to traverse at night (desert, for example). The Warden should balance these challenges along with any other.

Sleep

• The last watch of the day is typically reserved for the Make Camp action.
• Characters typically need to sleep each day. Anything beyond a minor interruption can negate or cancel the benefits of sleep.
• If the party skips the Make Camp action, they each add a Fatigue to their inventory and are deprived. Additionally, traveling when sleep-deprived raises the terrain Difficulty by a step (i.e. Easy becomes Tough).

Light

• Torches and other radial sources of light illuminate 40ft ahead of the party, but beyond that only provides a dim outline of objects.
• Characters without a light source may suffer from panic until their situation is remedied.
• Environmental conditions (sudden gusts of wind, dust, water, etc.) can easily blow out a torch.

Light Sources

• A torch can be lit 3 times before degrading.
• A lantern can be relit indefinitely but requires a separate oil can (6 uses).

Wilderness Actions

Travel

• Travel begins. Obvious locations, features, and terrain of nearby areas are revealed according to their distance. This action is typically taken by the entire party as one.
• The party rolls 1d6 to see if they get lost along the way. This risk can increase or decrease, depending on path Difficulty, maps, party skills, and guides.
• If lost, the party may need to spend a Wilderness Action to recover their way. Otherwise, the party reaches the next point along their route.

Remember to compare the results of getting lost to the relevant path Difficulty.

Explore

• One or more party members search a large area, searching for hidden features, scouting ahead, or treading carefully.
• A Location (shelter, village, cave, etc.) or Feature (geyser, underground river, beached ship, etc.) is discovered.
• The Travel action is still required to leave the current area, even if it has been completely explored.

Supply

• One or more party members may hunt, fish, or forage for food, collecting 1d4 Rations (3 uses each). The chance of a greater bounty increases with each additional participant (e.g. 1d4 becomes 1d6, up to a maximum of 1d12).
• Relevant experience or equipment may also increase the bounty collected.
• The party may encounter homes and small villages, spending gold and a full watch to resupply.

Make Camp

• The party stops to set up camp in the wilds. Each party member (and their mounts) consumes a Ration.
• A lookout rotation is set so that the party can sleep unmolested. A smaller party may need to risk sleeping unguarded or switch off sleeping over multiple days.
• Party members that were able to rest remove all of Fatigue from their inventory.

Downtime

Between game sessions, players can engage in a variety of activities such as research, following up on leads, improving skills, or building relationships. A PC is limited to one Downtime Action at a time. These actions cannot be undertaken in unsafe conditions or while a character is in recovery. A character cannot perform an action if it would put their safety at risk.

Milestones

For activities requiring multiple steps, the Warden assigns 1-5 Milestones for players to track progress. Each Milestone represents a comprehensive, non-interactive task. The Warden may present different strategies to achieve these goals, each with distinct Milestones. Depending on the unfolding events in the game, the Warden is also empowered to introduce new Milestones or discard existing ones.

Costs

PCs can complete individual Milestones by taking a Downtime Action and paying its respective Cost. If a character is unable to pay the Cost, they may have to find some other way to achieve their goal. A few examples of Cost:

• Gold: Direct payment of gold from a character’s inventory.
• Resources: Non-monetary costs such as material goods, specific common items, and so on.
• Reputation: Betting on a character’s renown, personality, presence, social connections, etc.
• Loss: Offering something specific and unique. A finger, a soul, a Relic, etc.

Some Costs can be reduced or disregarded through character skills, connections, or force of will. For example, a PC may have already acquired the necessary reputation to gain access to a renowned institution, and thus the cost is abated. On the other hand, another character may not be so lucky and must rely on their force of personality instead. In this case, the Warden should state the risk (a permanent ban on entry, a loss of reputation, etc.). The PC then makes a WIL save; on a success, the cost is either reduced or avoided entirely.

Downtime Actions

The following activities represent some of the most common Downtime Actions a players can choose. The Warden can also create custom actions based on the needs of play.

Research

A PC investigates a question about a bit of lost or forgotten lore, the location of a lost item, the whereabouts of an important NPC, and so on. To take this action, the player must have a clearly formulated question they’d like to answer and a Source of knowledge in the game world that their character can interact with. If the PC does not have a Source, then they can spend a Downtime Action trying to find one. There is no guarantee that they will be successful. Once a question is posed and an appropriate Source has been identified, the Warden should provide any Milestones and associated Costs.

Questions

As always, the question must come from an experience that occurred during play.

Examples:

• “Where is the Lost Temple of East Nipoor?”
• “Who in Fortune City might know how to crack an ancient vault?”
• “Where can I find the cure to curly sickness?”

Sources

A Source is a person, place, faction, or entity that holds either a part or whole answer that the character seeks. They can be NPCs, Factions, spirits, or even other PCs.

Examples:

• Kewr the Mouth, a frequent contact for the Conclave of Merchants. Despite their excellent relationship with this faction, asking for help in an illicit activity might come at a high cost.
• A Woodwose who makes his home deep in the Forest of Knives. The party encountered him in an earlier expedition and the meeting did not end well. Still, he is said to know the nature of every herb and their healing properties.
• The Temple of Puppets, a nomadic circus troupe who have travelled the known and unknown lands. The party assisted one of their members during the Rain of Fire, when even the creatures of the Wood were preparing to flee their homes. If anyone has heard of forgotten places, it’s them.

Training

A character can improve their skills with an item or ability, with clear narrative or mechanical results. They might be interested in dealing greater damage with a particular weapon, decreasing their chances of getting lost in rough weather, or learning to read the languages of the ancients. A PC might spend multiple Downtime Actions sparring with a particular weapon, improving their skills week by week. Or they may need to travel to the home of a distant sage, improving themselves through short but intense study.

The player must describe precisely what they’d like to improve and a Master whom they might train with. And of course, the character’s inspiration to improve should come from an experience in play. The Warden should provide any Milestones and associated Costs.

Examples:

• The Two-Handed Parry: When fighting with one hand free, a PC’s HP temporarily increases by 1d4. The party took on a hireling from the Cratered Lands, whose fighters emphasize avoiding enemy attacks. She has agreed to train anyone who can best her in hand to hand combat.
• Herbology: Given proper ingredients, a PC can create a Healing Salve (restores 4 STR) as a Downtime Action. After receiving care from an elderly herbalist in the Verdant Glades, the wounded PC asked to be trained in the healing arts. The Master has agreed, but asked that they collect three rare herbs before training can begin.
• Troutmaster: When taking the Supply Action, Rations gathered near cold freshwater sources increase by one step (e.g. 1d4 becomes 1d6). The party escorted a stranded naturalist from the famously dreadful Silver Wastes safely back to the city. As thanks, she has offered to train a PC to identify and capture a common lakefish that frequents colder waters.

Strengthening Ties

A character fosters a connection with an NPC or Faction in the game world. First, they must identify the entity with whom they wish to strengthen ties, as well as a specific intent (e.g., building trust, mending a friendship, seeking membership in a Faction, forming an alliance, and so on). The Warden then provides concrete measures (described as Milestones and Costs) that the PC can undertake to advance the relationship. With each completed Milestone, the Warden describes how the PC’s relationship has grown or changed.

Examples:

• After returning from an unsuccessful delve into the Roots, a PC discovers that they’d unknowingly brought along a stowaway: an eyeless devourer, barely hatched. They decide to keep the creature and train it in secret.
• During a play session, a PC becomes friendly with an agent of the Order of the Helm. Impressed by the Order’s values, the PC asks what the requirements are to join.
• An agent for a powerful faction dies during the Battle of Frogs while under the party’s care. Now those responsible wish to provide redress, so that the party can once again perform tasks for that faction.