Special Equipment
| Item | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Mundane | ||
| Charm buckle | 50 vp | 1/4 lb. |
| Drop sheath | 20 vp | 2 lb. |
| Foldable weapon | As masterwork | 1.5x normal |
| Harvesting tools | 50 vp | 5 lb. |
| Hollowed equipment | 3x normal | Varies |
| Poison stone | 100 vp | 1 lb. |
| Refugee leathers | +200 vp | Varies |
| Magical | ||
| Charm (minor) | 5 vp | -- |
| Charm (lesser) | 25 vp | -- |
| Charm (greater) | 100 vp | -- |
| Charm (true) | 2,500 vp | -- |
| Elven traveling clothes | 250 vp | 1/2 normal |
| Erethor tea | 80 vp | 1 lb. |
| Hearthstone | 75 vp | 2 lb. |
| Alchemical | ||
| Corpse acid | 40 vp/dose | 1 lb. |
| Essence of silver | 50 vp/dose | 1 lb. |
| Herbal concoctions | Varies | 1/4 lb. |
| Gnaw roots | 50 vp/+1 bonus/daily dose | |
| Infused oils | 25 vp/+1 bonus/daily dose | |
| Salves | 100 vp/spell level | |
| Orcbane | 50 vp/dose | 1 lb. |
| Orcish plagueskull | 50 vp | 2 lb. |
| Animals | ||
| Wogren | 800 vp | -- |
| Sarcosan riding horse | 300 vp | -- |
| Sarcosan warhorse | 600 vp | -- |
Weapons and magic are not the only items that can be used against the dark god. The following items are all considered contraband for the purposes of determining their regional worth.
Mundane Equipment
Charm Buckles: These intricately crafted items were originally produced by the dwarves, but have since become the domain of the gnome traders. Watertight and designed to look like simple belt buckles or cloak clasps, these devices can hold up to four charms at a time. To release the charms, the wearer simply twists the face of the buckle slightly, which releases the charm through a small channel and into his hand. Rapid twists can bypass some charms to relesae others, allowing the wearer to gain access to any of the charms it contains as a move action.
The buckles are very well designed and extremely difficult to detect. To discover that these are anything out of the ordinary requires a successful DC 25 Search check.
Drop Sheath: These items were originally constructed by canny Sarcosan courtiers to house blades for self-defense, but the drop sheath has since expanded into wide use by travelers and adventurers of all types and natures. he sheath is worn on the inside of the forearm and can only house light weapons weighing one pound or less (daggers, darts, etc.). By angling the arm down and twisting the wrist, the wearer can release the weapon into her hand as a free action.
Drop sheaths are difficult to notice, requiring a DC 30 Spot check or a DC 20 Search check.
Foldable Weapons: This special modification allows weapons to be easily taken apart so they can be hidden from the eyes of guards and others. Such weapons are very expensive to make and require expert craftsmanship that is hard to find. All such weapons are considered masterwork weapons for purposes of time required to craft, but they do not grant the usual enhancement bonus to attack rolls unless the craftsman spends twice the normal time for crafting the weapon.
Nearly any melee weapon within reason can be created as a foldable weapon, though the utility of this engineering decreases for weapons that are already small and easily concealed. The most expertly disguised foldable weapons appear to other things when taken apart, such as a foldable hammer whose head appears to be nothing more than a large whetstone or statuette when not attached to its handle.
Foldable weapons are not nearly as durable as their normal counterparts, suffering a -2 penalty to all saving throws and having only 75% of the normal hit points and hardness for their type. They must also be repaired occasionally (about once per month under normal use), which requires a DC 10 Craft (weaponsmithing) check to perform. If a weapon is not repaired once per month, it has a cumulative 25% chance of breaking each week of normal use. Assembling or disassembling a foldable weapon takes a full round for light weapons, 5 rounds for one-handed weapons, and 1 minute for two-handed weapons.
Being caught with a foldable weapon is a much more serious offense than having a normal weapon on one's person. Any character caught with such an item will be tortured until he either dies or divulges the source of his weapon.
Harvesting Tools: These matched sets are crafted by the Danisil and offered for trade from time to time, though only to those herbalists the jungle elves trust. Made from silver-edged steel and finely carved teak, these tools provide a +2 circumstance bonus to any Survival skill checks made to harvest herbalism ingredients. These tools are not magical in any way; they are simply perfectly crafter for their purpose.
Hollowed Equipment: Hollowed items are in great demand for their usefulness in hiding contraband from the prying eyes of the dark god's servants. All manner of things can be hollowed out to allow for hidden items and substances, and creating a hollowed item requires 150% of the time and effort as creating a normal version. In general, it requires a DC 15 Search check to detect a hollowed section in an item. If the item is of masterwork quality, the DC increases by 5. Casual observation cannot detect a hollow or false bottom unless the item is somehow faulty or poorly crafted. Some possible hollowed items and suggestions on what they might hold are as follows.
Hollow Anvil: A master craftsman might create a hollowed anvil to hide masterwork components or recent creations that the local authorities might take a dim view of. Usually this involves creating a new chamber underneath an existing anvil, as hollowing out the anvil itself might render it unusable for the smith.
Hollow Hilt/Handle: Hollow hilts are very popular with scouts, messengers, and others who often find themselves carrying important messages behind enemy lines. Hilts are generally not large enough to hold much volume and so are used for small items such as parchment, vials of alchemical items, charms, and herbal concoctions. Spices and other small trade goods can also be kept inside a hollow hilt. In addition to weapon hilts, the handles of tools and other innocuous implements can be hollowed for similar purposes.
Hollow Jewelry: Rings, brooches, and other hollow jewelry are sometimes used to transport contraband. Even less can be stored in a piece of hollowed hewelry than in a weapon hilt or tool handle.
Hollow ClothingBoot heels, belt buckles, and even the lining of a tunic or pair of breeches can all be used to effectively hide things from view. Boot heels and belt buckles offer much the same type of space as hollow jewelry and hilts. A special pouch can be made to hide small weapons inside the leggings of tall boots, and the inner linings of pants and shirts may be sewn and reinforced to create pouches and pockets that cannot be seen upon casual inspection. While these may not hold heavy items, they are perfect for large but light items like sheafs of parchment, thieves' tools, or even emergency rations.
False Bottoms: Boxes, coffers, and chests may all be created with false bottoms. This creates a cavity between the bottom of the chest and the floor that may be used to hide illegal or particularly valuable items. The false bottom is even hidden from the outside through the use of clever visual tricks and craftsmanship. Clever users of such items often place less important but still valuable items in the chest to distract would-be thieves, in the hopes that the culprit will make off with the lesser treasure without looking further.
Poison Stone: Resistance fighters who use poison, especially the Danisil, need a quick and safe way to poison their arrows or blades. The poison stone works quite well for this purpose, but remains rare due to the difficulty of finding the proper stones to craft the item.
Created from porous, volcanic rocks found in the mountains, the poison stone must be wrapped in a rag soaked in poison for six hours per dose of poison (up to 10 doses) it is meant to contain. The stones are then wrapped in a special leather sheath that holds them tightly together. Whereas the stones are safe and easy to use on the battlefield, those creating them run the normal risks of accidentally poisoning themselves.
The stones may retain their poisons' freshness for up to three days before needing to be soaked again. They only release the poison when force and friction are applied; for instance, by sliding a blade or arrowhead between them while they are wrapped tightly in their sheath. When applied in this manner, the user has no chance of poisoning himself and may apply poison to a single blade or arrowhead as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
Refugee Leathers (restricted): Crafted through a combination of halfling know-how and elven resources, refugee leathers are particularly sturdy but still lightweight suits of leather armor. In addition to being masterwork, they provide an additional +1 to AC.
Magical Equipment
Elven Traveling Clothes (restricted): The halfling weavers may be masters of mundane cloth, but it is the elvenkind that have mastered the art of enchanting clothes to fend off the elements and hide the wearer from enemy sight. The elves learned long ago that hiding from the eyes of orcs was useless if their garb acted as beacons for the dark god's astiraxes, however. Therefore, the elves learned to imbue their woven cloth with innate rather than channeled magic, so that their warriors could evade both mundane and mystical senses.
Elven traveling clothes come in as many shapes and forms as other garb. The most common are cloaks that act as cloaks of elvenkind, boots that act like boots of elvenkind, and tunics that grant their wearers the benifits of endure elements spells while they are worn. Other types of elven clothing may exist, each type granting up to a +5 competence bonus to a single specific skill check.
All elven traveling clothes have the same value and are created solely through innate magic, so they cannot be detected by astiraxes. Elven traveling clothes may be crafted as if they were greater charms.
Erethor Tea (restricted): Fael, or Erethor tea as it is known among the Northmen, is a valuable elixir used by the elves in place of bulky and heavy trail rations. The tea is created magically from various herbs and roots notive to the Erethor. The tea consists of dark flaky grounds that, when mixed with water, provides sustenance equivalent to actual rations. The resulting broth is thick and slightly sweet.
Two small cups per day serve to keep the drinker energized and healthy. The tea can be used as a sole source of nourishment for up to an arc at a time. After that its efficacy quickly fades and the drinker must spend at least half an arc eating actual food before resuming use of the tea. The tea takes getting used to, and the first few days drinkers suffer mild hunger pains and occasional stomach cramps. Heating the tea and drinking it warm helps ease this discomfort, but consuming any food while on the tea restarts the period of adjustment. One in 10 of all non-elves are violently allergic to the drink (DC 15 Fortitude save or be sickened for four hours after consuming it); such creatures gain no nourishment from consuming Erethor tea. One pound of Erethor tea powder is enough to make fifty servings. The tea is uncommon an so is therefore rather valuable.
Hearthstone (restricted): Hearthstones are a common elven magic that is so old their origin is long forgotten. Hearthstones are vital to the elven way of life, as they allow elfkin to heat their dwellings and cook their food without the need for firewood and with less risk of burning down their wooden homes. Hearthstones are flat, palm-size blocks of obsidian dug from the northern mountains and enchanted to release the elemental "heat of the earth" trapped within. They are lit and extinguished with the words eailin and eailone, respectively, and they shed heat with no flame. Most stones of any quality will last for several days of continual use and contact with hearthstones will ignite dry wood and other flammable materials. Most elven scouts carry arrows tipped with small hearthstone heads with which they can set fire to orc battleworks and other flammable structures.
Poisons and Acids
The Danisil and their halfling allies make extensive use of poison, especially those most useful against the orcs and other minions of the dark god. Thought he jungle elves may gift their allies and friends with a vial or two of these poisons, only a few Danisil know how to make the poisons and they will never reveal the secreat of their creation to others. After seeing herbalism spread through the world and into the hands of the orcs, the elves have become increasingly stingy with their knowledge.
Creating a single dose of any of the following poisons or acids requires 4 ranks in Craft (alchemy), 3 hours of work, and a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check.
Corpse Acid (restricted): While the undead completely immune to poisons, the Danisil have long been familiar with a number of naturally occurring toxins that effectively dissolve flesh. Experimentation on the tissues of the Fell revealed a type of contact poison that proved fairly harmless to decaying bodies of the undead. This substance requires difficult-to-obtain and expensive ingredients, as well as a great deal of skill, to manufacture (+2 additional ranks in Craft [alchemy] and +3 to the Craft DC).
You can throw corpse acid as a splash weapon. Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack. It deals damage to corporeal undead as if it were alchemist's fire, doing 1d6 points of acid damage on the first round and 1d6 additional points of acid damage the following round. Additionally, living creatures hit by the splash damage or accidentally exposed to the substance take no damage from it.
Essence of Silver (restricted): By dissolving silver in weak acids, the elves learned they could create a fine black powder that contains the very essence of the metal. Mixing this black powder with the right herbs and a bit of blood creates a glittering black paste that is surprisingly effective against any creatures with vulnerability to silver. Unfortunately, the essence is quite difficult to make and takes a great deal of silver to create, making it extremely rare (+4 additional ranks in Craft [alchemy] and +6 to the Craft DC).
As a special side effect, any weapon treated with essence of silver is considered a silver weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction or otherwise affecting creatures with vulnerability to silver.
Essence of Silver: Injury, DC 15; Initial Damage 1d3 Con, Secondary Damage 1d6 Con.
Orcsbane (restricted): Perfected be the Danisil, this venemous concoction is only somewhat toxic to most who come into contact with it. Orcs, however, cannot abide the substance, which causes horrible degeneration of their connective tissues and can lead to death from hemorrhage in a relatively short period of time. This weapon, when combined with the accuracy and ferocity of elven ambushes, has made even small groups of elves a fearsome foes to the dark god's forces.
Orcsbane: Injury, DC 18; against orcs: Initial Damage 1d4 Str, Secondary Damage 1d6 Con; against non-orcs: Initial Damage 1 Str, Secondary Damage 1 Con.
Orcish Plagueskull (restricted): Crafted by the sinister herbalists of the orcs, these skulls are packed with disease-ridden tissues preserved through the use of various blood garden herbs and roots. When the skulls shatter, they explode into a shower of infectious rotting material. You can throw an orcish plagueskull as a splash weapon. Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack.
Creatures hit directly by the plagueskull must make a saving throw against a randomly determined non-magical disease as described in the core rules (all of them are considered to have the contact method of delivery for this purpose) or contract the disease. Those who suffer splash damge must also make saving throws, albeit with a +5 bonus to their saving throws.