Act 2 — Kerse
To let your level 1 party take advantage of Kerse without stalling campaign momentum, give them roughly 10 to 14 days of downtime.
That is enough time for meaningful retraining, crafting, formula acquisition, spell study, shopping, and Earn Income without turning the Kerse visit into a month-long intermission.
Suggested Time Budget: 10–14 Days
- Retraining — usually 7 days
- Retraining a feat or ordinary skill choice generally takes about 1 week.
- Larger character choices can take considerably longer and might require specialized instruction.
- A character who is retraining can't perform another downtime activity at the same time.
- Crafting — 4+ days per project
- Standard PF2e Crafting normally requires an initial period of work before the Crafting check.
- Having an appropriate formula can reduce the startup time.
- After the initial Crafting period, the crafter can either pay the remaining cost and finish the item or continue working additional days to reduce that remaining cost using the normal Crafting/Earn Income progression.
- At level 1, the monetary savings from extra days are fairly small, so Crafting is most useful when the PCs want access to unusual items, custom equipment, batches of consumables, or simply want to make their own gear.
- Formula Acquisition — hours, not days
- Buying common formulas is straightforward in Kerse.
- Copying a formula into a formula book takes 1 hour per formula.
- The Brass Formula Exchange can therefore support several formula purchases or copying sessions in a single afternoon.
- Learn a Spell — usually hours
- Learning a spell takes 1 hour per spell rank, assuming the PC can find a teacher or suitable magical writing.
- The Concordance of Seven Lamps makes this substantially easier than it would be in a smaller settlement.
- Shopping — about 1 day
- Dedicated shopping normally takes 1 day of downtime.
- In Kerse, that can include locating specialized merchants, selling treasure, purchasing formulas, finding reagents, and arranging commissions.
- Earn Income — any remaining days
- Characters who aren't retraining or crafting can use spare downtime to Earn Income.
- Kerse should offer a much wider variety of jobs than Old Macridi, particularly for Crafting, Lore, Performance, Medicine, and specialized professional skills.
A Good 10-Day Kerse Stay
Day 1 Shopping, formula purchases, reagent acquisition, spell tutors, commissions, and city errands.
Days 2–8 Characters choose their major downtime project: - retrain a feat or skill option, - Craft equipment or consumables, - work on a research or professional project, - or Earn Income.
Days 9–10 Finish Crafting projects, copy additional formulas, Learn Spells, Earn Income, or handle personal scenes and contacts.
A 14-Day Stay
Two weeks gives the party enough room for a substantial project without feeling rushed.
A character might: - complete a week of retraining and spend the remaining week shopping or earning income; - devote most of the period to one or more Crafting projects; - spend several days acquiring formulas, researching unusual items, and arranging commissions; - or simply work and establish contacts in Kerse.
Level 1 Crafting Note
For Doku and Skye, Kerse is valuable less because Crafting dramatically reduces prices and more because it gives them access to things they couldn't easily do in Old Macridi:
- professional workshops,
- alchemical laboratories,
- raw materials,
- common formulas,
- possible access to uncommon formulas,
- specialist instructors,
- custom commissions,
- and a market large enough to support serious downtime projects.
If an ordinary common item is sitting on a shelf and they can afford it, buying it is usually faster. Crafting becomes much more interesting when access, customization, rarity, or personal investment matters.
Party Downtime Opportunities
Suggested Uses for a 10-Day Stay in Kerse
Kerse offers the party access to workshops, laboratories, tutors, guilds, and professional services that are difficult or impossible to find in smaller settlements. The following schedule highlights useful opportunities for each character during a roughly ten-day stay.
| Location / Establishment | Ulysses | Kota | Malkus | Skye | Doku |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The Brass Formula Exchange Trade District |
— | — | — |
Days 1, 8–10 Acquire weapon and armor schematics, research specialized designs, and consult archival crafting references. |
Day 1 Copy the Infernal Blight Bundle and Brimstone-Quencher formulas into a formula book. |
|
The Gilt Crucible Lower Trade Quarter |
— | — |
Days 2–3 Analyze blighted sap samples, consult alchemical physicians, and investigate possible medical applications or treatment methods. |
— |
Days 2–10 Rent a laboratory bench, batch-craft alchemical supplies, prepare Brimstone-Quenchers, and conduct detailed analysis of blight samples. |
|
The Nine Hammers Cooperative Eastern Artisan District |
— | — | — |
Days 2–10 Rent a forge bay, craft armor or cold-iron ammunition, repair equipment, and take artisan commissions between personal projects. |
— |
|
The Concordance of Seven Lamps Resplendent District |
— |
Days 1–10 Use Learn a Spell with available tutors, conduct planar and blight research, translate occult texts, and consult specialists in infernal phenomena. |
Days 1, 4–5 Acquire spell writings and consult divine, primal, and medical scholars about infernal or demonic plagues. |
— | — |
|
The Hall of Applied Excellence Civic & Guild Quarter |
Days 1–10 Complete a 7-day feat or skill retraining project, then pursue professional security or martial work during the remaining days. |
— |
Days 6–10 Register as a hired physician or medical consultant and pursue Earn Income work suited to advanced Medicine training. |
— | — |
|
Mercenary League Headquarters Central Kerse |
Days 8–10 Pursue guard contracts, caravan protection work, security consulting, or other short-term Mercenary League assignments. |
— | — | — | — |
The listed days are suggestions rather than mandatory schedules. Characters may divide their time differently, pursue multiple short activities around a primary downtime project, or abandon a planned activity if events in Kerse change their priorities.
Activities that occupy a full downtime period, such as retraining or extended Crafting, should not be treated as simultaneous with another full downtime activity. Short tasks such as purchasing formulas, copying writings, arranging commissions, or meeting instructors can usually be handled around the edges of longer projects when appropriate.
Macridi to Kerse by River
Conventional Boats and Dwarven Hydrofoils on Profit's Flow
Following the bends of Profit's Flow, the river journey between Macridi and Kerse is approximately 145–160 miles.
Profit's Flow runs from south to north, making the journey toward Kerse the faster downstream passage and the return to Macridi the slower upstream passage.
| Journey | Direction | Ordinary Riverboat | Dwarven Hydrofoil | Time Saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macridi → Kerse | Downriver | About 3 days | About 1 day | About 2 days |
| Kerse → Macridi | Upriver | About 5 days | About 1 day, 18 hours | About 3 days, 6 hours |
| Round Trip | Both Directions | About 8 days | About 2 days, 18 hours | About 5 days, 6 hours |
For normal commercial traffic, including vessels similar to the Long Dividend, use the following standard travel times:
Macridi to Kerse: 3 days.
Kerse to Macridi: 5 days.
These estimates assume roughly 10–12 hours of travel each day, with the vessel tying up or anchoring overnight rather than navigating continuously.
A typical downstream boat averages roughly 4.5–5 mph while underway. The same vessel fighting the current on the return journey averages closer to 2.5–3 mph.
A dwarven hydrofoil such as the Goldskimmer reduces travel time by approximately 65%, requiring only about 35% of the time needed by an ordinary riverboat.
This reduces the downstream journey from three days to approximately one day, while the more difficult upstream journey falls from five days to approximately one day and eighteen hours.
The hydrofoil is still affected by the current. Its engineering dramatically reduces drag, but it does not eliminate the advantage of traveling downstream.
An ordinary commercial boat must force its entire hull through the water and is limited by cargo weight, river current, and the resistance created by the hull itself.
At cruising speed, a dwarven hydrofoil rises onto submerged lifting blades, raising most of its hull above the surface. With far less vessel in contact with the water, drag drops sharply and the craft can maintain speeds impossible for conventional river traffic.
The tradeoff is capacity. Hydrofoils are best suited to passengers, messengers, valuable cargo, alchemical samples, and other high-priority freight rather than bulk timber or ordinary commercial loads.
Poor weather, unusually low water, heavy river traffic, floating timber, cargo stops, or mechanical trouble can increase travel time for either type of vessel.
Conventional traffic might require roughly 4 days downstream or 6 days upstream under poor conditions.
A hydrofoil is less affected by ordinary current but more vulnerable to debris, narrow channels, sharp bends, and shallow water. Where the pilot cannot safely remain on the foils, the vessel must slow and travel as a conventional boat.
By ordinary riverboat, sending a physical sample from Macridi to Kerse and receiving a reply requires approximately 8 days of travel alone: three days to Kerse and five days back.
If dwarven hydrofoil passage is available in both directions, that same round trip requires only about 2 days and 18 hours of travel.
Laboratory work, consultation, preparation of a response, and the availability of a returning vessel are added on top of those travel times.
The Goldskimmer Hydrofoil
Dwarven Engineering on Profit's Flow
At rest, the vessel looks too heavy to be fast: a long, narrow hull of dark timber bound in brass, with a low armored cabin and a broad dwarven engine housing occupying much of the stern.
Then the machinery engages.
Brass vanes beneath the hull bite into the river. The bow rises clear of the water, followed by most of the vessel itself, until the craft seems to balance impossibly upon a handful of submerged blades. The pounding of the hull against the current disappears. In its place comes the steady hum of gears, the hiss of spray, and a rapidly retreating shoreline.
The Goldskimmer is a rare dwarven rivercraft designed for rapid transportation along major waterways. Rather than forcing its entire hull through the water, articulated foils beneath the vessel lift most of its weight above the river once sufficient speed is reached.
The result is dramatically reduced drag. A Goldskimmer can cover the Macridi–Kerse route in approximately 35% of the time required by an ordinary commercial riverboat—a reduction of roughly 65%.
| Journey | Ordinary Riverboat | Dwarven Hydrofoil | Time Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macridi → Kerse | About 3 days | About 1 day | About 2 days |
| Kerse → Macridi | About 5 days | About 1¾ days | About 3¼ days |
For play, use the following standard travel times under favorable conditions:
Macridi to Kerse: approximately 1 day.
Kerse to Macridi: approximately 1 day and 18 hours.
The river current still matters. Traveling north toward Kerse allows the Goldskimmer to combine its own propulsion with the flow of the river. Returning south requires the vessel to fight the current, so the upstream voyage remains noticeably longer even with dwarven engineering.
The vessel's underside carries several retractable hydrodynamic lifting blades mounted to reinforced dwarven struts. At low speed the Goldskimmer behaves much like an ordinary shallow-draft boat.
Once its engine reaches cruising speed, water passing over the blades generates enough lift to raise the main hull above the surface. Only the foils and propulsion assembly remain submerged, allowing the vessel to race over stretches of open river that would slow a conventional barge.
A compact dwarven power assembly drives the stern mechanism through a complicated arrangement of gears, shafts, pressure chambers, and precisely machined brass components. Most surface engineers can recognize what the machinery is doing. Reproducing it is another matter entirely.
A Goldskimmer requires a reasonably broad, navigable channel before it can rise onto its foils. Near docks, sharp bends, shallows, debris fields, or heavy river traffic, the pilot must reduce speed and lower the hull back into the water.
Floating timber is particularly dangerous. At hydrofoil speed, striking a submerged log can damage a lifting strut or force the vessel violently off its foils.
Severe storms, unusually low water, mechanical trouble, or extensive debris can therefore erase much of the vessel's advantage.
Speed comes at the expense of capacity. The Goldskimmer carries passengers, messages, valuable cargo, alchemical samples, and other high-priority freight rather than bulk timber or ordinary commercial goods.
Passage is correspondingly expensive, and seats are rarely available without advance arrangements or a particularly persuasive reason for the dwarven crew to make room.
A message or alchemical sample leaving Macridi aboard a Goldskimmer can reach Kerse in roughly a day. If a hydrofoil is immediately available for the return journey, a physical response could theoretically make the complete trip in less than three days of travel time.
Laboratory work, loading delays, availability of a returning vessel, and whatever business awaits in Kerse remain separate from the actual travel time.