Adventuring Gear

Backpack: A leather pack carried on the back, typically with straps to secure it.

Bedroll: Adventurers never know where they’re going to sleep, and bedrolls help them get better sleep in haylofts or on the cold ground. A bedroll is bedding and a blanket thin enough to be rolled up and tied. In an emergency, it can double as a stretcher.

Blanket, Winter: A thick, quilted, wool blanket that is extremely common in Arcoti.

Caltrops: Caltrops resemble large metal jacks with sharpened points rather than balls on the ends of their arms. They are essentially iron spikes designed so that one point is always facing up. You scatter them on the ground in the hope that your enemies step on them or are at least forced to slow down to avoid them. 

One bag of caltrops (the 2-pound unit listed on the table to the left) covers an area 5 feet square. Each time a creature moves into an area covered by caltrops (or spends a round fighting while standing in such an area), the creature may step on one. The caltrops make an attack roll (base attack bonus +0) against the creature. For this attack, the creature’s shield, armor, and deflection bonus do not count. (Deflection averts blows as they approach you, but it does not prevent you from touching something dangerous.) If the creature is wearing shoes or  other footwear, it gets a +2 armor bonus to AC. If the caltrops succeed at the attack, the creature has stepped on one. The caltrop deals 1 point of damage, and the creature’s speed is reduced by one-half because its foot is wounded. This movement penalty lasts for 1 day, until the creature is successfully treated with the Heal skill (DC 15), or until it receives at least 1 point of magical curing. 

A charging or running creature must immediately stop if it steps on a caltrop. Any creature moving at half speed or slower can pick its way through a bed of caltrops with no trouble. The DM judges the effectiveness of caltrops against unusual opponents. A giant centipede, for example, can scramble among the caltrops with no chance of hurting itself, and a fire giant wearing fire-giant-size boots is immune to normal-size caltrops. (They just get stuck in the soles of his boots.)

Candle: A candle clearly illuminates a 5-foot radius and burns for 1 hour.

Case, Map or Scroll: A capped leather or tin tube for holding rolled pieces of parchment or paper.

Chain: Chain has a hardness of 10 and 5 hit points. It can be burst with a Strength check (DC 26).

Crowbar: An iron bar for levering things open.

Flask: A ceramic, glass, or metal container fitted with a tight stopper. It holds 1 pint of liquid.

Flint and Steel: Striking the steel and flint together creates sparks. By knocking sparks into tinder, you can create a small flame. Lighting a torch with flint and steel is a full-round action, and lighting any other fire with them takes at least that long.

Grappling Hook: Tied to the end of a rope, the hook can secure the rope to battlements, windows, tree limbs, and so forth.

Hammer: A one-handed hammer with an iron head that is useful for pounding pitons into a wall.

Ink: This is black ink. You can buy ink in other colors, but it costs twice as much.

Inkpen: A wooden stick with a special tip on the end. The tip draws ink in when dipped in a vial and leaves an ink trail when drawn across a surface.

Jug, Clay: A basic ceramic jug fitted with a stopper. It holds 1 gallon of liquid.

Ladder, 10-foot: A straight, simple wooden ladder.

Lamp, Common: A lamp clearly illuminates things in a 15-foot radius and burns for 6 hours on a pint of oil. It burns with a more even flame than a torch, but, unlike a lantern, it uses an open flame and it can spill easily, making it too dangerous for most adventuring. You can carry a lamp in one hand.

Lantern, Bullseye: A bullseye lantern has only a single shutter, with its other sides being highly polished inside to reflect the light in a single direction. It illuminates a cone 60 feet long and 20 feet wide at the end, and it burns for 6 hours on a pint of oil. You can carry a lantern in one hand.

Lantern, Hooded: A hooded lantern is a standard lantern with shuttered or hinged sides. You can carry a lantern in one hand. It clearly illuminates a 30-foot radius and burns for 6 hours on a pint of oil.

Lock: A lock is worked with a large, bulky key. The DC to open this kind of lock with the Open Locks skill depends on the lock’s quality: very simple (DC 20), average (DC 25), good (DC 30), amazingly good (DC 40).

Manacles and Manacles, Masterwork: These manacles can bind a Medium-size creature. The manacled character can use the Escape Artist skill to slip free (DC 30, or DC 35 for masterwork manacles). To break the manacles requires success at a Strength check (DC 26, or DC 28 for masterwork manacles). Manacles have a hardness of 10 and 10 hit points. Most manacles have locks; add the cost of the lock you want to the cost of the manacles. For the same price, one can buy manacles for Small creatures. For Large creatures, manacles cost ten times this amount, and for Huge creatures, one hundred times this amount. Gargantuan, Colossal, Tiny, Diminutive, and Fine creatures can only be held by specially made manacles. 

Mirror, Small Steel: A polished steel mirror is handy when you want to look around corners, signal friends with reflected sunlight, keep an eye on a medusa, make sure that you look good enough to present yourself to the queen, or examine wounds that you’ve received on hard-to-see parts of your body.

Oil: A pint of oil burns for 6 hours in a lantern. You can use a flask of oil as a grenade-like weapon. Use the rules for alchemist’s fire, except that it takes a full- round action to prepare a flask with a fuse. Once it is thrown, there is only a 50% chance that the flask ignites successfully. You can pour a pint of oil on the ground to cover an area 5 feet square (provided the surface is smooth). If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 1d3 points of damage to each creature in the area.

Paper: A white sheet of paper made from cloth fibers.

Parchment: Goat hide or sheepskin prepared for writing on.

Piton: When a wall doesn’t offer you handholds and footholds, you can make your own. A piton is a steel spike with an eye through which you can loop a rope. (See the Climb skill). 

Pole, 10-foot: When you suspect a trap, you’d rather put the end of your 10-foot pole through a hole in a wall than your hand.

Pouch, Belt: This leather pouch straps to your belt. It’s good for holding things that you may need in a hurry, such as potions.

Ram, Portable: This iron-shod wooden beam is the perfect tool for battering down doors. Not only does it give you a +2 circumstance bonus on your Strength check to break open a door, but it allows a second person to help you without having to roll, adding another +2 to your check (see Breaking Open Doors, page 62).

Rations, Trail: Trail rations are compact, dry, high-energy foods suitable for travel, such as jerky, dried fruit, hardtack, and nuts.

Rope, Hemp: This rope has 2 hit points and can be burst with a successful Strength check (DC 23).

Rope, Silk: This rope has 4 hit points and can be burst with a successful Strength check (DC 24). It is so supple that it adds a +2 circumstance bonus to Use Rope checks.