With everyone getting a bit of rest and faring each other well, the Spritelings depart. The recent opportunity to look at the birds' map came in handy, as it marked some convenient fording spots, making it easy for Bigs to carry the passengers over the river in the shallowest, safest crossing to the eastern shore (which is optimal for the rest of the journey along the rivers).
By sunset, the Spritelings reach the fork in the river, and get to benefit from its abundant amounts of fish. The night is little different from the previous one, other than in lacking encounters with any new acquaintances.
The next morning - the dawn of the third day of spring - is noticeably warmer. By now, there is no snow remaining anywhere, leaves are returning to all the shrubs, and more flowers have sprouted here and there. With sunrise, you move out further north. It's a relatively pleasant walk along the river, with the warm sun and the cool wind balancing each other.
The terrain changes slightly as you pass the line marked as infested the Shrikes. Though perhaps the real cause more to do with this also being the approximate boundary where the grassy meadows and hills give way to cliffy mountains. That is to say, the ground here looks more arid and less overgrown, and there are fewer shrubs here.
Things do look a bit different as you go further north along the river. Around noon, you walk between the river and some rocks extending from a cliffside to the shore, and from behind them a different scene unfolds.
On the eastern side, where the shore and cliffs meet, there are some acacias growing amid a patch of grass. And on the acacias' thorns and branches, there are some rodent and bird carcasses.
[ +- ] Travel calculations
OOC:
Bigs has Travel 4, for a ×2½ multiplier applied to the base wilderness speed of approximately 4km/h, so 10km/h.
The total path until the next scene is about 125 thousands of spriteling yards (km), or about 12½ hours.
Let's say the party spent until 11:00 on sorting out everything before departure.
That leaves 7 hours of sunlight left in the day, one of which is going to be spent on foraging for the lunch, leaving 6 - enough to reach the big river by sunset and to spent the post-sunset hour fishing/foraging (and then likewise an hour before sunrise on the next day).
So on day 2 of spring, you forage once at the small river and once at the big, slowly getting some surplus of meals (see below), travel for 6 hours (out of a 12½-hour trip).
on day 3 of spring you start travel at 06:00 (after sorting out morning logistics), travel for the remaining 6½ hours, and when it's almost time to make a lunch stop (12:30), the scene begins. You can decide what to do about it - maybe the party will decide to keep going for now.
[ +- ] Food gain/loss rate calculations
OOC:
Nutrition requirements (per sitting):
Bigs eats 2½ meals (due to today's Flaw Activation), other three Spritelings eat 1 meal each.
That's 5½ meals per sitting.
Gains per hour of foraging:
Nemma: Survival 2 -> 1.6 meals.
Bigs: Survival 0 -> 1 meal;
Snakey: Survival 1 -> 1¼ meals;
Mara (fishing, ×2 gains multiplier on the big river, ×1½ for small): Survival 3 -> base 2 meals × either 1½ or 2 depending on river -> 3-4 meals.
TOTAL GAIN: 4+1¼+1+1.6 = +6.85 on small river (first foraging of the trip), +7.85 meals on big river (subsuquent ones).
Three foragings (one small, two big), for +6.85 + (2×7.85) = +22.55 meals foraged.
One lunch, supper, and breakfast, so -3×5½ = -16.5 meals consumed.
Food surplus is now 6.05, so you can skip lunch foraging on day 3 of spring if you want.
OOC:
Time is 12:30 on day 3 of spring. Bigs gets to claim the Walk Like a Mammoth Drama Charge gains for the new day (for the food requirements), at a Trivial multiplier. Nemma also reduced wounds % from 8% to 6% over the course of the two nights of sleep.
[ +- ] Map update (image)
