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Downtime

Downtime is the period between events where you character continues to have a life and livelihood - or at least attempts to.
You can do a variety of things in this time, but remember that survival is the most important - so you should consider how these actions will help your character obtain essential food and goods.
You need to leave the event with one sack of food for each point of Physical Health you have, or else acquire the necessary food in the downtime period. If you have fewer sacks of food than your Physical Health, then your Physical Health is reduced by the difference, down to a minimum of 1, for the whole of the next event you attend. After that event, your Physical Health is restored to normal (unless you also do not get enough food in the following downtime!)
Food goes off between events, meaning that sacks collected at an event or during the subsequent downtime will not carry over to the next event.
Time in Downtime is represented by Actions, each one representing an in-character month. Therefore, each character gets 6 Actions per Downtime.
Some Downtime activities require more than one Action, and/or other items or skills. Some activities can be done faster or better if you have certain skills or items.
Other characters can help or hinder your Downtime activities. Some activities, like Raiding, automatically bring you into conflict with PCs and NPCs at a location.
You get 2XP to spend on skills or save after each event.
You always need a teacher for any Aspects you wish to learn. You do not require a teacher to learn any other skill.
You can communicate with other characters in Downtime - please be sure to use the email address we have provided you, so that we receive copies of all such communications. Alternatively, you could write us a letter or email and we could forward it on for you. This does not cost any Actions.
It costs you no Actions to pass items to other characters, or receive items from them.
It costs you no Actions to provide another character with a map of a location you have Explored or Investigated so that they can Investigate or Scavenge there. You can even do this all in the same Downtime!

Possible Actions are as follows

Change Eminence	Over time, your attitudes can shift, and this can be represented by changing your Second Eminence (the one from your Outlook). It takes two months/Actions to change to the other Eminence available to members of your Outlook.
Change Outlook	For some Fallen, their attitude changes so much that they find themselves slowly drifting over to a new Outlook (and with it, a new Second Eminence to replace the one from their previous Outlook). It takes four months/Actions to shift to one of the other Outlooks.
Craft Item(s)	Assuming you have the relevant Craft skill, you may spend an Action to craft any one item (or five doses of drugs) that you have the materials for. If you have multiple levels of the same Craft skill, and sufficient materials, you may make multiple identical items (up to a maximum of the number of levels of skill you have) in each Action.
Explore	You may spend an Action Exploring a Location (taken from the general list of Vimary Locations, or discovered in play), receiving the local description and seeing other character in that area at the same time as you. If you wish to explore beyond the edge of Vimary, you can - but it is very risky!
Foraging	You spend time foraging in the Duskfall Forest, receiving one sack of wood per level of Outdoors: Foraging you have.
Hunting	You spend time hunting in the Duskfall Forest, receiving one sack of food per level of Outdoors: Hunting you have. Remember that all your sacks of food go off at the end of the Downtime (but you can Trade it away for other things!).
Investigate	Every location has secrets, and are flagged as such. This Action lets you try to discover what's going on. You may only Investigate a location that you (or an ally) have previously Explored, or to which you have found a map, but you can do both in the same Downtime.
Learn Skill	It takes one Action to spend 1XP to learn one skill. For Prowess and Conjunctional Synthesis skills, therefore, you must spend two Actions along with the 2XP.
Prospecting	You spend time prospecting in the Duskfall Forest, receiving one sack of metal per level of Outdoors: Prospecting you have.
Raid	You may attack a location with this Action. Any characters in that location will defend against you unless they are assisting your Raid or inform the team otherwise. The higher the potential reward from a Raid, the greater the risk: hitting a small outpost in the Hunting Paths is unlikely to get much, but there won't be much resistance. On the other hand, riches await anyone willing to Raid Bazaar, but this is basically suicidal.
Scavenging	If you (or an ally) have determined that a location contains secrets from the World Before by Investigating, you can spend an Action trying to liberate any relics that might be there.
Skinning	You spend time trapping in the Duskfall Forest, receiving one sack of skins per level of Outdoors: Skinning you have.
Teach Aspect	You may decide to spend two Actions teaching another character (who must be able to perform Intuitive Synthesis) an Aspect you know. This is distinct from the Teach Skill Action and you cannot contribute XP to help your student.
Teach Skill	You may decide to spend 1XP on teaching another character a skill your character already knows, effectively giving them that XP. A character may only be taught one skill per Downtime, and the student must also use a Learn Skill action at the same time. In the case of Conjunctional Synthesis and Prowess, you may only contribute 1XP to a student, and it takes only one Action to do so.
Trade	You must specify a location where you wish to spend an Action trading and what you are offering for trade. Trading either provides a random return of a moderate number of crafted items, or a small number of an item you specify. You are also likely to hear rumours in the process.
Unlearn Skill	By spending one Action (two Actions in the case of Prowess or Conjunctional Synthesis), you may remove one specified skill from your character and reclaim its cost in XP.