Some Concerns About Travel

Date: April 18, 1650
Location: Stavanger, Rogaland
Weather: a fresh wind blowing from the west northwest, with chilly weather, a spattering to light rainfall, cloudy skies and a somewhat miserable outlook.

It is six in the evening.  The sun is down and the party is gathered together in a long house, a common shelter like many in the town, where residents gather to escape the weather.  The house provides benches and a fire, and does not demand that anyone make any purchases or pay a price for being there ~ it is offered as a sort of community indoor "park." However, it isn't closed to the weather, there are no window panes (though you are out of the rain) and the doorways have no doors.

I want the party to take a moment and reconsider the plan to take Engelhart's sloop to Sauda.  I wanted to write it in a post because I wanted all to see it.

The boat is open to the weather.  With the new CLO rules, now that this has been nailed down as a measure, I can easily impose measures that will represent the weather to your characters.  For the first day spent out in the weather that you are short of CLO, your characters will take 1 damage; for a second day, that will double and for a third day, that will treble.

Furthermore, if you're out and you take damage like I describe, you will have to roll to see if you catch a malady of some kind.  As Lothar already has one, he is at a greater threat.

In the boat, the only person who will actually be working will be Engelhart.  His CLO won't need to be so high, but the rest of you will just be sitting in the boat.  In this weather, the rest of you will need 3.44 CLO if you don't want to freeze.  I know most of you don't have anything like that.  I'm going to rule that rain will double the damage as well.

Now, Engelhart can take his boat the 50 miles to Sauda, and he's likely done it before. But depending on the weather, the actual time it takes could be more than one day.  Yes, a ship can travel 24 hours a day, but that's assuming the crew has someone to take a second and third shift.  Engelhart is alone (I think).  If the ship is running or reaching against the wind, he will make 8 or 10 knots an hour, and be in Sauda by the afternoon; but if he is close-hauling against the wind, he will make 2 knots an hour, which means it will take 24 hours to reach Sauda.  That's probably more than two days of work, assuming he's willing and able to work 10 hour days (more than that would mean damage as well).

It depends on the wind in the morning - but it also depends on the wind not changing during the day.

In any case, the party might be interested in investing in blankets.