The quest board turns each season. Send a ready hero; they are gone for the quest’s duration and roll when they return.
The roll. The hero’s best relevant stat, plus half their level, plus any arts and relics, plus two dice, against the quest’s difficulty. Beat it by 4 or more for a triumph (half again the reward, better artifact odds). Fail by more than 4 and it is a disaster.
Improvising. Any hero may attempt any quest. Off their specialty, they roll their best other stat at −4. The quest card says so before you send them.
The three tiers. Ember (death on a disaster: 8%) · Silver (death on a disaster: 18%) · Blood (death on a disaster: 30%). A setback wounds; a disaster wounds badly or kills, less a hero’s death-save, never below 5%.
Old places pull quests toward themselves: ruins most of all, and a Forge of the old realm makes weapon-quests three times as likely to surface a named blade.
The Grand Saga
Five chapters, in order, for one hero-line and one realm. The Saga demands a realm behind the legend: later chapters will not open for a lord with nothing to their name.
I: Saga I: The Cold Trail. The Chronicle holds that the Ember Throne broke into shards, and the shards into rumors. The oldest rumor sleeps in these ruins: the ledger of the palace salvagers, who looted the throne room before the ash settled. A Silver-tier guile quest, difficulty 11, 3 seasons in the doing. Needs a level 2+ hero.
II: Saga II: The Morning Shard. The ledger names this burning ground: here a salvager buried what he could not bear to sell: a shard of the throne itself, still keeping the first fire. It has been feeding the land’s heat for forty years. It will not want to be dug up. A Silver-tier lore quest, difficulty 12, 3 seasons in the doing. Needs a level 3+ hero.
III: Saga III: The Barrow-King’s Toll. The second shard was paid to the barrow-king as toll, generations ago, by salvagers who wanted to cross his valley alive. He honors bargains. He will want a new one. A Blood-tier might quest, difficulty 13, 3 seasons in the doing. Needs a level 4+ hero. Needs 4+ provinces.
IV: Saga IV: The Forge That Remembers. Two shards, one ancient forge, and the oldest smithing-song in the realm. Reforge the heart of the throne. The forge remembers how; it requires only hands worth trusting and both shards on the anvil. A Blood-tier lore quest, difficulty 14, 3 seasons in the doing. Needs a level 5+ hero. Needs 4+ provinces.
V: Saga V: The Rekindling. Carry the Emberheart to your own high seat and hold the three-night ritual of Rekindling. Every lord in the realm will see the glow on the horizon and know exactly what it means. Hold the seat. Finish the fire. A Blood-tier lore quest, difficulty 14, 3 seasons in the doing. Needs a level 7+ hero. Needs 5+ provinces.
The Rekindling is held at your own seat, in the open, for three seasons, and it is a promise, not a secret. A rival who storms the seat mid-ritual breaks it. The whole realm can see the fire from where it stands.
Osperan: every age gets the legend it deserves. This one, apparently, gets whoever finishes the paperwork of destiny first.