Encounters on the way

The overworld is not empty between the places on the map. As you travel you may meet someone on the way: a band of footpads on the road, goblin raiders in the hills, the dead of the barrows walking at night, a pedlar with his pack, villagers going to market, or a herd of deer. Who you may meet depends on where you are, the time of day, and what has happened in your story so far.

The chance of meeting someone

Every step onto an overworld cell with a local area may meet someone; towns, dungeon entrances, and water are safe. The chance is a rate per hour of travel, set by the land you step onto, times the hours the step takes. A longer step leaves you exposed for longer.

Roads are the safest ground, open land less safe, and woods, hills, deep forest, and marsh the least. In twilight the chance is half as much again, and at night double. Some places are busier than others: while a story keeps people on the move there, a region’s chance may rise (see The Ascmearc’s encounters). Travelling faster, with Survival and the talents that quicken your journeys, means fewer hours on the way and so fewer encounters.

“A day’s march” is how many encounters twelve hours of daylight on that land bring on average. There is no limit to how many you meet; the chance is all there is.

Who sees whom

When you meet someone, two checks decide who noticed whom first. Each is 2d12 plus an edge, against the number it needs, as in hitting.

• Your lookout. Your edge is your Willpower modifier, plus what Spot and Survival give the lookout, plus Alert and the other talents below. You need the difficulty, plus their leader’s stalk (what its Stealth gives), plus the land’s cover, plus the rain, plus the dark at night or in twilight. The dark counts half as much if you have darkvision.
• Their lookout. Their edge is their leader’s Willpower modifier plus what its Spot gives. They need the difficulty, plus your stalk (Stealth), plus the cover, plus the rain, plus the dark unless the leader sees in the dark. A lit lantern at night or in twilight takes a good deal off what they need.

What comes of it:

How often a check succeeds, by your edge and the number it needs:

What the skills give, by their value:

Every lookout trains Spot and Survival. A party that misses you trains your Stealth.

Deciding what to do

When you meet someone, the game asks what you do, and you must answer. Until you choose, you can do nothing else, except pick what a new level brings or change your stance.

• Lie in wait (when you have the drop). You take cover for ten minutes and let them walk into you. They come on unaware of you, like a creature you slipped past, and a step behind, so your first blows are sneak attacks.

• Slip past (when you have the drop) or Give them the slip (when you met). This is a check of your Dexterity modifier plus what Survival gives slipping away, plus your stalk if they have not seen you, against the difficulty. It is harder when they have seen you, and when their leader is quicker than you. The detour takes half the step’s time again, whatever comes of it. Made, you are on your way (“You slip away unseen.”, “You lose them in the woods.”). Failed, they are onto you, and the fight starts close.

• Talk your way past (when you met, if you are trained in Bluff). Only a few parties would rather hear a story than fight: the footpads on the road, in the woods, and in the vale, the duergar prospectors at Ascdūn, and the cultists on the fen road. The tables below mark them “talked past”.

  Their leader rolls 2d12 plus its Willpower modifier. It must reach the difficulty a feint asks, plus your Presence modifier, plus what your talents add to Presence checks, plus what your Bluff adds to a feint. If it falls short, “You talk your way past.”: they let you go, and it took as long as a word with someone. Otherwise “They are not fooled.”, and the fight starts as if you had stood to fight. Every try trains Bluff.

• Stand and fight. You go to meet them in the cell’s local area.

• Hail them or Pass by (travellers who mean you no harm). If you hail them, you meet them in the local area, where you can talk to them as to anyone.

• Hunt them or Let them be (animals). If you hunt, you find them in the local area. A deer is good food.

A party you got away from stays where you left it. Meet the same sort of party on that cell again and it is the same one, and you are told so: “You remember them: you got away from them here before.”

Where the fight happens

A fight, a hail, or a hunt opens the local area of the cell you stepped onto, on the side you came from, as > would. How far in you stand depends on how the encounter went: the better it went for you, the nearer you are to the edge you came from.

Ambushed, you are caught unawares unless you keep your wits about you. To get away, leave the area as you would any other, which needs no enemy within three cells of you.

Camping and foraging

Resting on the overworld is not safe either. Each hour of rest has a quarter of the chance an hour’s travel on that land has. Asleep, you keep no watch but your ears. Your check is your Willpower modifier plus your hearing (Listen and Keen ears) plus Alert. It needs the difficulty plus their stalk plus the rain; neither cover nor the dark hides a sound.

Whoever comes always finds your camp. If you make the check, you wake in time to meet them (“You wake to the sound of a band of footpads close by your camp.”). If you fail, you wake with them upon you. Travellers and animals wake you too. Either way your rest stops.

Foraging in the wild has the land’s whole chance for the time it takes, and you keep a traveller’s lookout.

The Ascmearc’s encounters

Who you meet in the Ascmearc, table by table. Where several tables apply, their entries are drawn together by weight. A table “instead of” another leaves the other’s entries out while it applies. Where a row narrows its table (at night, once a place is known), you meet it only then.

• The roads are the safest ground, but footpads walk them at every level, with their bowmen at night. The pedlar knows the ways east to Cealdhlāw and the ford. He tells them, and they are marked on your map as rumoured ways are. Ask him for the news of the roads too, and for his one offer. Villagers of the vale greet you on their way to market.
• Hlāwdūn, the barrow downs: by day the vale’s raiders and the barrows’ spiders; at night and in twilight the barrows’ dead, and whatever walks out of Cealdhlāw.
• The deep woods and Ascdūn: once you know where Wulfeshol or Fyrdelf lies, what lives there comes out too.
• Micelfenn, the great fen: leeches and frogs, and the drowned at night. While Sister Hild’s errand to the fen minster is under way, the cult walks the fen, and you meet more there.
• While the Gilde wants Black Wystan, his archers watch the roads of the vale and the downs.
• A month into your stay, the orcs come down into Burnadenu.
• By day, on the roads, in the vale, on the downs, and in the woods, a bard who has reached the class’s last level may meet a strange spirit. Nobody else ever does (see Prestige classes).

“Drawn from the folk” of a dungeon means whoever you would meet on its floors at that danger, strays included.

See also: Surprise and sneak attacks and Using your skills.