A Bad Year for Sham

It's been a bad year for Sham.Early in the year, villagers were disappearing, abducted by goblyns and sacrificed to the chaos-god Zhothaqquah. Unnatural storms brought about a terrible flood in Spring, and a plague swept the region in Summer. The flooding from Spring, coupled with early frost and early snows in Autumn, have done serious damage to the crops. Worries about a possible famine were realized when a fire in the village destroyed much of the stored harvest, not to mention the buildings and lives consumed by the flames. Woodcutters are braving the winter snows, the worst in years, to help the village rebuild. The nearly constant harassment by Kruthar raiders means that militia volunteers are needed to guard the woodcutters each day, and more are needed to patrol the stockade each night. Before Winter is through, Desmond the Elder estimates that the population of Sham has been cut to half what it was the year before.

What this means to the party

To begin with, the famine and the fire means that upkeep costs are double throughout the winter.  Unfortunately, winter is also when we assess the cost of maintenance on the characters' houses - normally 10% of the house's value, but with the fire and all the cost is doubled to 20% - 100 silver coins for each house-owning PC.

Second of all, with the very existence of the village threatened, Nylian is highly motivated to take drastic measures against the Kruthar horde. The frequency of the raids suggests that they have established a nearby camp from which to strike, but the party can also strike out for the lair itself in the northern hills, to hit them where they live. If the party opts for this action, they'll have the choice of their usual tactics - a small, elite strike force conducting guerrilla raids against the barbarians - or they could attempt to raise an organized war-band to conduct a larger-scale military strike. The party might be able to convince Prontis Blackhart to lend some soldiers, but will probably have to recruit mercenaries from a larger city like Nemedia to make the army effective. That would be a time-consuming and expensive affair, and would drastically undermine the party's usual goal of nabbing maximum treasure and XP, but it remains an option.

Winter Expenses [revised because math hates my brain]


Food & essentials for long-term residence is normally 20/month, while long-term stabling & feed of horses is normally just 2/month. While the famine & shortage of both lumber & labor persist, these will be doubled to 40 and 4. The costs below will see to all needs through the Wolf Moon and the Storm Moon and have everyone stocked up for the Crow Moon, when we will resume play.

Ash has a house with three residents, three horses, and a mule. Between maintenance, stabling, food, and other essentials, he's shelling out 508 silver to cover the three months until the party can travel again.

Brianne and Morgana are assumed to be staying as Ash's guests, but I'm also assuming Brianne is chipping in for their expenses. Including her horse's stabling, she needs to pay 252 silver for the winter.

Nylian, if I recall correctly, has rooms for Vennet at her house, and they both have horses. Between the two of them, they'll have to cough up 364 silver.

Clementine has a house and horse, but lives by herself. 232 silver.

Bill doesn't have a horse, so he only needs 220. Svaarden and Gottfried are both listed as inactive, but they'd have the same expenses as Bill.