Downtime 01 ❖ April 18, 2020
Aeris & Rhea went looking for a teacher to do some martial training. They found Leander, disgraced, drunk and one-armed former captain of the Chatelaine's personal guard. He doesn't like to talk about his time at the palace. They had to ply him with 6 coins worth of drinks before he'd agree to train them. He was intrigued by their tales of the underworld beneath Zyan, and trained them on condition they'd owe him a favour.
| Rhea learned Twist the Knife: After scoring a successful hit with a small blade, you can keep the knife in the wound. If the target attacks you before your next action, you defend against that attack with disadvantage. If your next attack is against that foe, you attack with advantage and deal bonus damage equal to your level. |
| Aeris learned War On Two Fronts: When dual wielding, if you attack exactly two opponents in a round, upgrade one of your cleave dice on the second target by one step. |
The next day Leander brought them an ebony box and a silver spoon engraved with strange runes. “If you slay more shadows, gather their substance with the spoon and ladle it into the box. Bring it back to me.”
Meanwhile Garviel studied the scrolls he found in the scriptorium.
He learned the rudiments of Zyanese written language, and the spell Testify, though he isn't quite sure what it does, or for that matter whether he's actually cast it yet.
His experiments lead to the creation of a small, white-feathered flapping thing with a single eye, which he names Saturn.
This is how the downtimes started, simple lists of results of PC actions. Little did I realise they would grow and grow until they became short stories in their own right! This was a lot of work but well worth it.