Downtime Endeavours

   

Sparring Challenge

You throw down a gauntlet, whether in a smoky tavern yard, a soldier’s drill square, or beneath the gaze of a crowd. Wagers are made, laughter and shouting fill the air, and the outcome will follow you longer than the bruises. The benefit of sparring is rarely the coin: it’s the network of admirers, bitter rivals, or potential recruits that grows with every bout. A clever fighter can use a public match to measure the local talent - or to intimidate it.    

"I once sparred with a dwarf in Magramine who fought like a door - couldn’t move him an inch. Two mugs later, he was telling me where all the city’s smugglers hid their coin. Never waste a bout." -- Brumurum Honorbrow, Kobold Fight Club

 

Monster Lore Practice

You sharpen your mind as well as your steel, poring over hunters’ tales, dissecting carcasses, or sketching bestiaries. You learn how claws curve, how scales overlap, and which bones snap cleanest. Beyond the knowledge itself, such practice puts you in the company of hunters, healers, and those who track monsters for coin. Friendships or rivalries with such folk often matter as much as the knowledge of how to kill a wyvern.    

Organising a Tournament

You don’t just train - you host. You gather sponsors, set fields, hire criers, and spread word of a tournament. Fighters come from near and far, gamblers pour in coin, and nobles arrive to see who shines. The affair can grow into a spectacle that cements your reputation in the region. Tournaments bring far more than fighters. They are perfect venues for political plots, clandestine meetings, and displays of loyalty. A sharp eye can measure the strength of a region’s militia just by watching who enters the lists.    

"I once judged a pie-eating contest in Bridgeport that turned into a riot. Two dead, one bakery burned, and a very smug dog with an entire goose in its mouth. Never underestimate competitive spirit." -- Fiona Redgrove

 

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Scholarly & Arcane Pursuits

Books, stars, and shards: not every adventurer spends their downtime swinging a sword. Many prefer to burn candles instead of calories, or court madness in libraries and laboratories. These endeavours are about knowledge - or the pursuit of powers that few should touch.  

"I’ve always said that reading is far more dangerous than drinking. Books have started more wars than taverns ever did." -- Hannibal von Lector

 

Research in Libraries & Archives

You haunt dusty reading rooms, bribe archivists, or pour over scrolls in candlelight. Knowledge comes slowly, through aching eyes and cramped hands, but discoveries linger long after bruises heal. What is rarely obvious is how such research weaves into wider webs: the clerk who notes what you ask about, the rival scholar who resents your progress, the noble who fears you are digging too close to a scandal.    

Magical Experimentation

You lock yourself away with chalk circles, muttering formulae, shards of Amalthea humming on the table. Some magicians are cautious. Others, less so. Results can range from minor marvels to catastrophes that leave eyebrows singed and apprentices missing. Beyond the practical outcome, experiments always attract notice: rival magi eager to poach your work, societies curious about your success, or fey folk drawn to the tremors of power.    

Writing a Treatise or Chronicle

You take quill to parchment, writing your experiences, recording observations, or arguing some grand thesis. Most end up ignored; some find their way into guild halls or university shelves. A very few stir debate or even reshape the way others see the world. Benefits often lie in who reads your words: admirers, enemies, would-be plagiarists. A careless line can win you fame or make you a target.    

Astrological Predictions

You spend nights staring at stars, drawing charts, and muttering about alignments. Astrologers may not always agree, but their customers always listen. Predictions can comfort, frighten, or inspire action. Such predictions can steer others’ behaviour: merchants waiting to trade, nobles delaying marriages, cults whispering doom.    

"I charted the heavens above Lymyra once, and all the stars spelled ‘duck’. I thought it nonsense - until the roof fell in the next morning." -- Mariel Greenleaf, astrologer

 

Teaching Apprentices

You take on eager students - or at least those who can pay. They learn slowly, but the act of teaching often clarifies your own thoughts, and students sometimes surprise their masters with insight or invention. Apprentices grow into allies, rivals, or betrayers depending on the ties you weave.    

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Social & Community Pursuits

Not every battle is fought with sword and shield. Much of life’s conflict plays out across tavern tables, in whispered rumours, or at the doors of guildhalls. These pursuits revolve around reputation, alliances, and influence. An adventurer who ignores them risks being rich in coin but poor in friends.  

"You can drink away a fortune in a week, but a story told in the right ear lasts a lifetime." -- Lydia Quillston, editor of *The Beacon*

 

Carousing in Taverns

You drink, sing, dice, and boast with locals. It may be cheap ale and gutter songs, or fine wine and duels of wit. Taverns are crossroads: where rumours flow freer than ale, where strangers become companions, and where enemies sometimes listen in the shadows.   The unseen value of carousing lies not in the coins won or lost, but in the doors opened by drunken friendship, or the ears pricked by your boasts.    

Forming Alliances

You court guildmasters, flatter noble patrons, or strike bargains with societies. A true alliance is never just about friendship: it’s about what you can give, and what you can gain. Alliances bind you into webs of favours and obligations that will echo long after the deal is struck.    

"Never sign on with a guild unless you’re ready to carry their debts as well as your own. They’ll remember your signature long after you’ve forgotten theirs." -- Bertram Spurillo, merchant

 

Teaching or Performing

You lend your time and talents to others - instructing eager students, or performing before delighted crowds. Taverns roar with laughter at your tales, children learn to read under your care, or nobles nod politely at your recitations.   The unseen advantage is that performance is propaganda. The stories you tell, the lessons you give, shape how people think about you long after you leave.    

Hosting Salons & Gatherings

You rent halls, open parlours, and invite nobles, scholars, adventurers, or eccentrics to gather. There is laughter, debate, and the dangerous mingling of ideas. In such places, reputations are burnished or destroyed in the span of an evening. Beyond reputation, salons are recruitment grounds. The right guest may become a future ally - or discover too much about you.    

Volunteering in the Community

You dig ditches, mend roofs, tend the sick, or teach children letters. This is humble work, unglamorous and unnoticed by the mighty - but the poor remember kindness longer than the rich remember debts. Loyalty: when trouble comes, the people you helped may rally to you when soldiers or nobles would not.    

Courtship & Romance

You spend time wooing, courting, or strengthening bonds with a partner. For some it is love, for others a calculated move into dynastic or political networks. Romance is never only personal. Lovers bring connections, obligations, and enemies.    

Managing Reputation (Rumours & Scandals)

You work to polish your image or bury unpleasant stories. You might spread flattering tales in taverns, hire criers, or bribe gossips into silence. What is unseen is how fragile such control is: a lie told in your favour can just as easily be turned against you later.    

"I once paid a gossip to tell the city I was dead, just to see who would turn up at my funeral. Half my friends were weeping. The other half were measuring my boots." -- Sir Abraham Slendik

 

Petitioning Local Authorities

You seek an audience with judges, magistrates, or noble rulers. This could be for pardons, support, or permission. Officials are always weighing whether you are worth their favour.   The unseen advantage lies in being remembered: a noble who dismisses you once may listen more closely next time if your fortunes rise.    

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Craft & Trade Pursuits

The clang of hammer on anvil, the smell of sawdust and ink, the rattle of dice in a tavern’s back room - commerce is the heartbeat of Alana. For some, crafting and trade are livelihoods. For adventurers, they are ways to profit, to make names in guild rolls, or to fall deeply into debt.  

"I once thought adventurers lived only by the sword. Then I saw one retire on the profits of his candle shop. Killed fewer goblins, but outlived the lot of them." -- Willy Bilkins, bard

 

Crafting Goods

You bend wood, temper steel, weave cloth, or carve stone into useful things. A week at the forge or workshop can produce tools for sale, trinkets for barter, or the beginnings of a masterpiece that will outlast you. Reputation: a signature piece - the sword with your mark, the dress with your stitch - can make you known in circles that blades never reach.    

Running a Business

You oversee an enterprise: a tavern, smithy, theatre, or caravan. Profits depend on customers, staff, and your ability to juggle both coin and reputation. Network: merchants, officials, and criminals all pass through businesses. Your enterprise becomes a meeting place for deals and whispers.    

"Taverns aren’t built on bricks and beer - they’re built on secrets. And gods help you if your barkeep starts selling both." -- Grandolph Grieck, Enima Society

 

Speculation & Trade

You dabble in markets, buying low and selling high. Grain, spice, honey, Aeum-infused curios - fortunes shift on the rumour of a ship delayed or a field spoiled by frost. Connections: to trade is to weave yourself into merchant houses, smugglers’ chains, and noble pockets.    

Gambling

Dice roll, cards flip, cups spin. For some it’s pleasure, for others survival. One night’s luck can fill a purse or empty it forever. Information: gamblers gossip, cheats reveal skills, and tavern owners watch who wins too often.    

Commissioned Work

A noble requests armour, a guild wants maps, or a theatre pays for new stage scenery. Such commissions can be lucrative but bind you to deadlines and expectations. Obligation: once you take a commission, those patrons may expect your loyalty in future.    

Investing in Guilds

You pay dues, buy shares, or pledge support to guilds of crafters, merchants, or thieves. Investments tie you to networks that stretch across cities. These ties can drag you into guild wars, or offer protection when law or rivals close in.    

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Exploration & Travel Pursuits

The world of Alana is wide and strange. Some adventurers spend their downtime in the pursuit of the unknown - sketching coastlines, scouting threats, trudging to shrines, or poking about in ruins. Such endeavours are more than wanderlust; they are how maps are made, dangers discovered, and legends uncovered.  

"They told me never to stray from the road. I strayed. Found a ruin, a ghost, and a sack of coins. Still not sure if it was worth the trousers I lost to brambles." -- Geertruud Smallbottom

 

Mapping the Unknown

You strike into wilderness, quill and compass in hand, tracing rivers, sketching hills, and noting landmarks. Maps aren’t just parchment and ink: they are keys to trade, war, and myth. Value: not only to merchants and generals, but to thieves, smugglers, and cults who prize paths the authorities don’t know.    

Scouting Local Threats

You watch from hedgerows, creep along ridges, and listen for voices in the dark. Scouting uncovers camps, lairs, and weaknesses before the first blade is drawn. Your gain is knowledge others lack. A whispered word about a rival’s numbers or a chieftain’s habits can shift whole campaigns.    

Pilgrimage to Shrines

You travel to holy wells, standing stones, or shrines like The Silverwell of Arcadia. Pilgrimages test endurance but reward spirit, offering blessings or visions. Community: fellow pilgrims may become lasting companions or informants, and priests may record your name for future calls to service.    

Exploring Ruins

Old halls, tumbled towers, shard-craters turned strange forests - Alana is thick with the bones of the past. Exploring them between quests uncovers relics, lore, and sometimes dangers best left sleeping. You may attract attention. Others may follow in your footsteps, or take offence that you disturbed them.    

Guiding Caravans

You sign on as a guide, leading merchants and travellers across roads you know. It’s steady coin, but dangerous: bandits and beasts love caravans. Reputation: a reliable guide is worth more than gold to merchants, and your name may travel further than you do.    

Beast-Taming Journey

You devote days to tracking and taming beasts - falcons for the hunt, hounds for war, or even shard-mutated creatures whose loyalty is uncertain. Fame: a knight with a glowing-eyed wolf at his side will be remembered, feared, or courted.    

"A man in Hoppington tried to tame a pufflet once. Came back three weeks later with no trousers and a basket of bread rolls he swore had followed him home instead. Pufflets don’t tame. They mock." -- Margo Weedlebeam

 

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Healing & Recovery Pursuits

Adventuring leaves scars, and even the toughest need time to mend. Downtime offers the chance not just to patch up bodies, but to soothe minds, shed corruption, and find a little peace in a world that seldom grants it. Healing endeavours remind us that strength is measured as much in recovery as in battle.  

"A rest well taken is worth a dozen sharpened swords. The trick is convincing fools with sharpened swords to rest." -- Captain Thorne Blackwell, Black Guard

 

Medical Treatment

You seek out surgeons, herbalists, or priests of healing. They stitch torn flesh, set bones, and brew bitter draughts. The process is costly and sometimes more painful than the wound itself, but it shortens weeks of misery. The unseen benefit of such visits is not only physical - healers gossip, overhear confessions, and often know what troubles the town before magistrates do.    

Rehabilitation

You spend days walking again after a shattered leg, meditating through fevers, or retraining your sword arm. Rehabilitation is slower than surgery but rebuilds strength and resilience. Such hard-won recovery often earns respect. Those who watch you limp back to life may never forget your stubbornness.    

Rest & Recuperation

Sometimes the best cure is simply sleep, food, and letting time do its work. You retreat to bed, stay in inns, or sprawl in shady fields. The unseen gain is not only restored strength: such pauses can spark creativity, dreams, or the loyalty of those who nursed you.    

Herbal Remedies & Baths

Steam, scented oils, Aeum-infused teas, and heated baths draw out toxins. Healers claim these restore balance. Even if they do nothing mystical, they soothe mind and body alike. Bathhouses are gathering places - gossip is often hotter than the water.    

"Never trust a bathhouse where the steam smells of mushrooms. That’s not healing. That’s spores." -- Margo Weedlebeam

 

Seeking Blessings

You kneel in temples, leave offerings at roadside shrines, or petition wandering priests. Such acts soothe the soul and sometimes earn divine favour. Blessings often come with strings. A priest who grants you favour may expect service later.    

Mental Recuperation

You seek calm through meditation, music, or conversation. For some, it is solitude; for others, time with friends or counsellors. Insight: dreams, stray words, or sudden clarity often arrive in these quiet days.    

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Espionage & Underhanded Pursuits

Not all work is done in the light of day. Some thrive in the whisper of secrets, the clink of concealed coins, or the silent pad of boots on rooftops. These endeavours are as dangerous as they are profitable, for once you start walking in shadows, you never quite return to the sun.  

"You don’t have to be faster than the guard dog. You just have to be faster than the fool you brought with you." -- Thomas, snitch

 

Gathering Secrets & Blackmail

You eavesdrop in taverns, bribe clerks, slip coins into servants’ hands, or watch from windows at night. Secrets are currency, and with enough of them, you can ruin reputations or steer politics without lifting a blade. Secrets cut both ways: the more you learn, the more someone wants you silenced.    

Thievery & Burglary

You scale walls, pick locks, and slip into places meant to stay closed. Sometimes it’s for coin, sometimes for documents, sometimes for the thrill; a glimpse of private letters, a hint of something far more valuable than you came for.    

"Never steal something shiny when there’s paper on the desk. Paper holds more power than gems nine times in ten." -- Bruno Twiddlethumbs, thief

 

Smuggling

You move contraband under the noses of customs and guards: Aeum crystals, forbidden books, or just wine taxed too heavily. Smuggling isn’t about strength but subtlety and trust. Network: smugglers link ports, villages, and nobles who all rely on things best unrecorded.    

Recruiting Informants

You cultivate eyes and ears in kitchens, stables, and guardrooms. With coin or charm, you convince them to whisper secrets into your hands. Dependency: once someone tells you one secret, they are bound tighter to you with each word.    

Forging Documents

You copy seals, mimic handwriting, or bribe scribes to create documents: safe-conducts, pardons, tax notes, even love letters. Documents leave trails. A forged writ might work once - but if discovered, it endangers you long after.    

Poisoning & Subtle Sabotage

You spend your downtime not in healing, but in harming: brewing toxins, sabotaging rival shops, or tampering with equipment. These acts ripple. Even when no one suspects you, poisoned rivals or broken wheels change the flow of power around you.    

"I once loosened a wheel spoke on a rival’s cart. The fool survived, but his pies did not. Whole street smelled of apples for a week." -- Gerti Cheesecake, cake vendor

 

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Spiritual & Mystical Pursuits

Not every pause in life is spent on earthbound matters. Some turn their downtime to the unseen: prayers whispered to old gods, offerings left at fae circles, or meditations that drift far beyond the body. These pursuits carry risks as surely as any sword fight, for what answers in the dark is not always what you hoped to hear.  

"I once prayed for a good harvest. The gods answered by sending rain for three weeks. My wheat drowned, but the neighbour’s ducks had the time of their lives." -- Peppo Fiddlesticks, farmer

 

Meditation & Contemplation

You seek stillness - through chants, silence, or long walks in wild places. This is the simplest pursuit, but also one of the most rewarding. Minds clear, dreams settle, and sometimes visions arrive unbidden. Insight: people return from such contemplations with answers to questions they never meant to ask.    

Prayer & Rituals

You offer prayers, sacrifices, or services to gods, saints, or ancestral spirits. Some do it in grand temples, others by roadside shrines or riverside stones. Obligation: the gods and their servants rarely forget a promise made.    

Bargaining with Fey Folk

You step into fae-haunted glades, speak to beings older than kingdoms, and trade coin, song, or secrets for gifts. Their bargains are rarely simple, and never free. Entanglement: those who bargain with the fae are remembered, and sooner or later the fae collect.    

"The fae never lie. They just don’t care what you think - they mean." -- Margo Weedlebeam

 

Spirit Communion

You seek the dead, whether ancestors, fallen comrades, or lingering shades. This may mean seances, blood-offerings, or wandering into ruins where whispers stir. Possible side effect: haunting; spirits often remain close after they’ve been called, and not always as allies.    

Vision Quests

You fast, wander alone, or use herbs to cross into dream-states. Vision quests can reveal hidden truths or leave minds shattered. Transformation: characters return changed, sometimes in ways they barely understand.    

Oath-Keeping & Vows

You reaffirm promises before gods, fae, or mortal witnesses. Such vows grant strength but bind you tight. Vows shape stories. Breaking them later may be more dangerous than any blade.    

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Unusual & Peculiar Pursuits

Every city and country has its trades and crafts, but only Alana can boast rabbitfolk who keep prophetic bees, gnomes who argue with their printing presses, and fae-touched stones that warp the very air around them. These are endeavours for the bold, the reckless, or the hopelessly curious - which, in practice, covers most adventurers.  

"I once tried to keep a pufflet in a box. By morning the pufflet was gone and the box was full of turnips. Nobody has ever explained this to me." -- Muffy Fluffear

 

Shard Harvesting & Study

You stalk shard-craters, scrape glowing rock from the roots of twisted trees, or cut fragments from shard-mutated beasts. Each harvest is perilous, for the shards whisper, burn, and sometimes bite back.   Unseen, shards do more than enrich you: they attract cultists, fae, Titanforged remnants, and anyone desperate for power.    

Inventing at the Gnome Workshop

In the smoke-choked halls of Bridgeport's Gnome Workshop, ideas take shape in brass and steam. You tinker, hammer, and curse until something whirrs, squeaks, or explodes. The Workshop is a hive of spies and rivals. An invention left on a bench today might appear tomorrow with someone else’s name engraved on it.    

"Never test an invention indoors unless you also own the walls." -- Tinsel, Gnome Workshop

 

Gossip Writing for *The Beacon*

You submit scandalous columns, witty essays, or thinly veiled attacks to Lydia Quillston’s notorious paper. A single piece can elevate or ruin reputations. A well-placed story can start wars of words that spill into streets.    

Joining the Good Time Society

You attend the soirées of Bridgeport’s most influential women. Here, theatre outings and afternoon teas are as political as any battlefield. Membership opens doors into elite circles but also paints you as fair game in their rivalries.    

Research with the Enigma Society

You pore over occult tomes, aid in classifying curios, or help puzzle over magical riddles in their hidden warehouses. The Enigma Society never shares everything they know - they are as much puppet-masters as scholars.    

Commissioning Plays (at LIPA or similar)

You fund or direct a performance at Bridgeport’s Luminary Institute of Performing Arts. It could be glorious or a disaster mocked for decades. Plays are propaganda: they sway opinion, spread rumours, and immortalise (or slander) people in verse.    

Participating in Festivals & Competitions

You join soap box derbies, pie-eating contests, archery matches, or wrestling bouts. The crowd roars, wagers fly, and winners are remembered. Rivals made in festivals may dog you long after the bunting comes down.    

Exotic Animal Breeding

You spend time with hives of prophetic bees, flocks of glowfish, or the famous pufflets of Hoppsala. Breeding such creatures is art, science, and lunacy in equal parts. A rare breed can make you a fortune - or an object of obsession for nobles and thieves alike.    

"Try selling pufflet eggs if you like being lynched. They don’t have eggs. Or they do, but the eggs hatch into radishes. Nobody knows." -- Geertruud Smallbottom

 

Collecting Curiosities for the Cabinet of Wonder

You scour ruins, markets, and graveyards for oddities: fossilised fae wings, shard-glass teeth, or skulls that whisper in the night. Curiosities draw interest from collectors, thieves, and cultists alike.    

Negotiating with Titanforged Remnants

You seek out the war-scarred relics of the Titanforged, half-broken but still awake. Sometimes you repair them. Sometimes you just listen. Titanforged do not forget those who speak to them - whether as friend or as enemy.    

Keeping a Public Journal

You publish accounts of your adventures - whether pamphlets, broadsheets, or diaries sold to eager crowds. These words shape your legend. Long after you’ve gone, people will read them and decide what you were.    

"Best thing about writing your own journal is you can make yourself taller, handsomer, and twice as brave." -- Geertruud Smallbottom

 

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Overarching Endeavours

Some endeavours last longer than a week or two. They are the ambitions, foundations, and obsessions that span seasons. These pursuits don’t just fill downtime; they define it. To take one is to invest in a future that may reward or ruin you, but will never leave you unchanged.  

"Folk think heroes are made in battles. They’re wrong. Heroes are made in the choices they keep chasing after the battles are done." -- Thun Wu, warrior

 

Training New Skills

You devote yourself to steady practice: learning a foreign tongue, mastering lute chords, studying theology, or drilling with swordmasters. True learning is not a flash of inspiration but the grind of repetition. Training ties you to teachers, rival pupils, or guilds that may one day call on you again.    

Building Strongholds

You invest in stone and timber, gold and workers, designing a base of your own - from cottages and inns to fortified towers and enchanted estates. Strongholds are not only places of rest, but magnets for allies and enemies. A base becomes a story hub: where plots begin, enemies strike, and communities form.    

"Never build a tower unless you’re ready for every wizard, bird, and tax collector in the land to come knocking." -- Pokrotz Stoneshaper, stonemason

 

Maintaining Equipment & Mounts

You sharpen blades, oil armour, polish muskets, or curry warhorses. Time spent in care ensures gear won’t fail when most needed. Well-kept gear and proud mounts often become symbols remembered long after their owners.    

Travelling Abroad Between Regions

You spend months moving between kingdoms: sailing seas, riding deserts, or crossing mountains. Such journeys yield more than landscapes - they forge connections across the wide fabric of Alana. Travel broadens your world. Contacts made far from home may change the course of your story.    

Long-Term Goals (Research, Quests, Inventions)

You set yourself an ambition beyond the week - to pen an epic, decipher Titanforged relics, breed a new line of pufflets, or design an airship . Such goals rarely resolve in a single downtime, but accumulate across many.    

Downtime Adventures

Sometimes, a "quiet week" turns into misadventure: a brawl that escalates, a drunken dare that leads to a cursed ruin, or a theft gone too well to ignore.