You have been granted a majority share in (and personal leadership of, if you wish) a trading caravan or merchant ship based somewhere in your nation, with a portion of its profits and goods yours to do with as you please. You will gain a pile of coinage, a basket of goods from the nation your Caravan is trading with, and some juicy gossip or rumors that your Caravan overhears while traveling through that nation. (Note that the Rumors gained by Caravans come from a limited pool generated each Round of Downtime; if the total number of Rumors produced by Caravans during a Round exceeds the size of the pool, then some Caravans will gain Rumors that are the same as those gained by another Caravan.)

The Caravan can consist of a land-based trading caravan, a merchant ship, or a combination of the two that adapts as circumstances demand. The details of what your Caravan looks like and what exactly it does in between events is up to you.

At each event (or at most a month after the start of each Downtime) you must contact Wheelhouse and inform us of what nation you wish for your Caravan to be trading in during Downtime; this choice will default to your home nation if you do not inform us of a preferred destination. In your next welcome packet, you will receive an amount of Scales (coins) dependent on your Caravan’s level, and a basket of goods, the content of which will vary depending on which nation your Caravan was trading with. You will also receive a page describing a rumor that your Caravan overheard while traveling, related to the current events in the nation it was trading in or a bit of plot involving that nation in the game.

A Caravan starts at Level 10, and its output can be increased or decreased by changing its Level, whether permanently or temporarily.

You can increase your Caravan’s Level permanently (”upgrading” it) by bringing 3 Aether Crystals and 5 each of Gryphon Feathers, Mithryl, and Bluethistle to Wheelhouse. You can only upgrade your Caravan once per event, and the cost of Upgrading it goes up by +2 Aether Crystals and +3 each of Gryphon Feathers, Mithryl, and Bluethistle for every level your Caravan is above 10.

Some catastrophic events can permanently decrease your Caravan’s level. Repairing the damage caused by such an event requires the expenditure of a flat amount of 3 each of Gryphon Feathers, Mithryl, and Bluethistle per level you wish to restore.

The table below lists the specific basket of resources your Caravan brings back from trading with a given nation. “Mixed Herbs” in this case means one or more of the five herbs that an Herb Garden produces, chosen at random. See the Currency & Resources page for more details on these resources.