Winds of the North Playtest Session pt7 (Eyjolf, Fall, Year 2)

Last Season was a lot of preparation and some Raiding. Not a ton of excitement but necessary work. We begin Fall in a really good place. The goal this Season is readying for the Jól Festival coming in Winter. Our plan is to throw a huge Feast and maybe get some Fame.

This is also the first time playing with the 0.6 rules which have several changes and additions. For one, the new character sheets have more room for Inventory and Hirðmenn so the information is better organized and not as cramped.

Month 1

We start with fortuitous Weather, so I have a choice of Harvesting now or trying to Build. Unfortunately, our lack of Storage space makes the decision for me. We’ll have plenty of time to get the crops in; I need space first! The Shed is finished, giving us 12 slots. We then head out Fishing for 2 Meat and 1 Oil.

Week two begins with Rain, so we’re not Harvesting this week either. Instead, we go Hunting since my bonuses should be more than enough to overcome a bit of rain. No illness and we bring home a Deer for 3 Meat and 1 Hide. Time to head to the Market. No Event is rolled this time, so we get to selling (after paying our fee, of course). 4 Hide and 8 Oil brings in 56 Silver. Before I forget, I buy 2 Goats for Festival sacrifices. I have some more transactions left, but we’re going to hold off for now. I’m sure we’ll be back before long.

The next week is Storms. The new Storms have a reduced penalty from -4 to -3, but they have a chance to destroy a crop. Nothing is destroyed this time (I’m regretting putting off the Harvest this long). We get sick cutting some more Wood, then fail to Recuperate. Not a good Week. Things were going so well… Rain the following Week. We head out Hunting again (no illness) and bring in 3 Meat and 1 Hide. I push my luck some more and Cut Wood. No illness again, but we only get 2 Wood. There’s a reason we need all this Wood. The Month ends with no Event, but we get another box on the House Extension.

Month 2

Finally, we get some more Clear Weather. Time to Harvest! It takes the whole Week to Harvest, but at this point, I’m glad to get it done. Our first roll is for Barley which has a marked Field for +2 (bringing it to a +4 total with our Sickle and Farmhand). The Onions and Peas all get +2. Good rolls all around, and 1 very high roll. In total, we bring in Seeds for everything, 14 Food, and 1 Ale. Eyjolf? Good at Farming? No, this was some good rolls for the most part. Though, Harvesting isn’t as difficult as Planting Crops.

Everything was Harvested just in time for more Storms. We chop some more Wood but don’t get sick (we’ve really been pushing our luck). Then we head to the Vetrnaetr Festival. First Goat gets sacrificed and with a good roll (Goats give no bonus) we have 3 Ancestral Spirits for re-rolls, which I’m sure to forget. We skipped the Feast to save our supplies for Jol (in part because I don’t remember how much we need and don’t want to look it up). At the Mock Battles, we earn 1 Ale and 2 Meat. Following Week is Clear Weather, and now it’s time to Build. We’ve been stockpiling Wood for a new rule. You can now spend up to 6 Wood when continuing construction to get +1 for each 2 spent. I spend 6 Wood because the House Extension is difficult. I only have a +4 which is reduced to +2 from the building’s modifier. But a good roll finally finishes it off. We now have room for more people! We go back out to replenish some of the spent Wood.

We get some Rain the next Week, so I head out Hunting (no illness again!). I craft a trap for +1 to my Hunt roll and decide to go all out and hunt some Bear. Another change is that there are some low-level ways to earn Fame, but they have limits. In this case, killing a Giant Bear grants +1 Fame, but you can only earn it once. With a good roll, we happen upon a Giant Bear. We lose Initiative and I even take 2 damage. My HP is actually getting a bit low since we haven’t been healing. But on the attack, we get the kill. In addition to the Fame, we get a Bear Pelt, Bear Helm (+1 Defense), and some Meat. With the Hunt over, we go into the Fame Event. A man with a grudge against Eyjolf’s deceased father comes looking for compensation. Eyjolf instead offers a duel, and the man accepts. He soon dies and we earn more Happiness for having dealt with the problem. I can also now have 3 Hirðmenn! Since we got a Bear Pelt, we spend our last Activity Crafting and make a Bear Cloak (to sell).

For the End of Month, we have no free construction because I didn’t have time to start another building. For the Event, a sick man arrives asking for a place to rest. Eyjolf lets him in and tends to his wounds. We have some leftover Medicine, so we spend it for a +2 bonus to healing him and he makes a full recovery. Perfect timing. We get a Skald Hirð member who even happens to have a +1 to the Jól Feast. Things couldn’t have worked out any better.

Month 3

With some Clear Weather, we start a new Building. We’ve got tons of Seeds, so it’s time to add another Field. Just a Small Field for now. We get 2 boxes of progress then go cut some extra Wood. Since the next Week is also Clear Weather, we head out to Explore (haven’t done that in a while). Unfortunately, a bad roll gives us just a Trivial Encounter where a man is selling Goats. Eyjolf already has one for sacrifice, so he passes.

Time to head back to the Market to sell things and free up some space. We actually get a better Encounter on the Event roll. A farm is hounded by a Draugr and they ask us to go kill it. Sure! We get the first hit, but the roll is too low and we can’t kill it in the first round. Eyjolf also takes 2 damage. He’s not likely to die here, but he’s definitely going to need to heal soon. We finish it off in round 2. We can’t even take all of the rewards! We have to skip on the Shield, but we did get an Iron out of it which we might craft with. Once we arrive at the Market, we sell the 2 Hide, extra Bear Cloak, and our Shield for 23 Silver, putting us over 100! The reason we sold off the Shield is that we earned a Bear Helm recently which has the same Defense bonus, but it frees up a hand so we can upgrade the Spear to a Dane Axe for +3 Damage. We only buy 8 Ale to bring us to 10 and save our money. We can actually afford to buy a Ship, which we might do soon for next year’s Raid.

More Clear Weather. Since storage space has continued to be a problem, we start another Shed. We’re in no rush to finish the Field. Only get 2 boxes, but that’s fine. Wood is low again, so we go Cut Wood for 3 more. Rain the next Week, so time to stay home and heal up. With our overwhelming Happiness, we have a +2 bonus and get 2 Recovery Points which both go to Eyjolf (though our Cousin is still down 1 HP too). We then go ahead and Craft that Dane Axe, and succeed by only 1 (the Dane Axe is a -2 modifier). Sweat.

The Month and the Season come to an end. We eat some Food since we have plenty (and didn’t get any Meat this Month). 1 box gets filled on the Shed. For the Event, we get our House Spirit again, but this time we have tons of Food! +1 Happiness and 2 more Recovery Points (we needed those!). Then Winter begins. Only 2 people get sick, a Servant and the Farmhand. We lose 2 Happiness, but we’re still at 10. The Pig is also sick, but he’s probably going to get chopped up at the Jól Festival.

Quite an intense Season! We’ve got tons of Silver, a lot of supplies (which is going to get spent in the coming Feast), and new gear. And more space! Sometime this Winter, we’ll finish the Fields for the coming Spring and likely buy a Ship.

Until next time!