----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WOOD Wood (Common): Various types of wood are present in the North, but the most common are fir, maple, oak, pine, and spruce. Many varieties and qualities exist to distinguish subgroups within the wood types, but generally spruce tends to be the lightest wood for its quality, while oak and maple are heavier. Pine and fir are lighter woods but not as desireable in construction or large crafting projects. Common woods have an average hardness of 5, and 10 HP/inch of thickness; a rick (cubic foot, in this world) weighs from 30 to 50 pounds and costs between 10 and 30 GP. Cost: As normal. = = = = = = = = = = = = Darkwood: This rare wood from foreign lands is as hard as normal wood but very light. Any wooden or mostly wooden item made from darkwood is considered a masterwork item and weighs only half as much as a normal wooden item of that type. Armor check penalties for darkwood shields are reduced by 2. Some of the wealthiest merchants have their ships outfitted primarily with this wood, a lavish undertaking that allows the craft to sail at amazing speeds. Darkwood has a hardness of 5, and 10 HP/inch of thickness; a rick weighs about 20 pounds and costs about 400 GP. Cost: Armor, Weapon, Item - +20 GP/pound Heartsblood: Only found in the heart (central part of the trunk) of very old bloodwoods, this material is uncommon and valuable. Though most of the tree's wood is fibrous, the core is smooth, solid, and heavy; it has condensed the resistant properties native to bloodwoods. Shields made from heartsblood grant the wielder a natural +1 resist per shield category to all energy types (+1 on bucklers or light shields, +2 on heavy shields, and +3 on tower shields). Heartsblood weapons enchanced to deal energy damage do an extra +1 point of the same type of damage. Runecrafted items primarily made from heartsblood count as being created by a smith with +1 caster level. Heartsblood can be crafted into any of a variety of consumable spell components (runes, incense wicks, and the like); such a component weighs a tenth of a pound, costs 10 GP, and when consumed during the casting of an energy spell, it causes the associated spell to be Empowered. One unit of this component needs to be consumed per level of the spell being Empowered. Objects created from heartsblood have a resistance of 5 to all energy types, and must be of masterwork quality. Heartsblood has a hardness of 8, and 20 HP/inch of thickness; a rick weighs about 60 pounds and costs about 6,000 GP. Cost: Armor - +500 GP/pound; Weapon, Item - +100 GP/pound Ironwood: Ironwood is the hard, umber-hued wood of a short and gnarled tree that can be found in a wide range of locales across the continent. Although ironwood is too heavy and hard to have much use in crafting, some craftsmen can use the material to create weapons of war. The crafting process is difficult and sometimes expensive, and often results in a great deal of wasted material. Ironwood weapons must be of masterwork quality, and they gain the according benefits. The primary advantage of ironwood is that it can be used to create metal weapons at half their normal weight, and such weapons are actually wood. Ironwood has a hardness of 10, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a rick weighs about 200 pounds and costs about 4,000 GP. Cost: Weapon - +200 GP/pound Spellwood: Some sailors claim that every drop of water in every ocean in the world eventually flows past the rocky, mostly-uninhabited shores of the North. One of the most valuable treasures provided by that water is a special kind of driftwood known as spellwood. Spellwood is indistinquishable from ordinary driftwood except by magical means, and difficult to craft because it seems to "remember" whatever shape it had when it washed up on the shore. A runesmith can cast spells into prepared spellwood, and the wood will absorb and memorize the spell as if it were a spellbook. Each pound of wood can hold 25 pages worth of spells, which can be prepared as if the spellwood object were a normal spellbook. A runesmith does need not be able to see the wood to "read" it, but at his touch the spells will be available by projecting themselves directly into his or her mind. Spells cast into spellwood for memorization can never be "erased" therefrom. A spellwood object has a resistance of 5 to all energy types, but unlike heartsblood that resistance is not conferred to any user. Spellwood has a hardness of 8, and 15 HP/inch of thickness; a rick weighs about 60 pounds and costs 200,000 if "raw" or 300,000 GP if prepared. Cost: Weapon, Item - +5,000 GP/pound ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- METAL Metal (Common): Mined from the earth as ores and smelted into workable alloys by methods known as metallurgy, metals are a vital part of everyday life in the world of Talnera. Nearly anything that comes out of the ground can be used in commerce, construction, or magic. Even more than stones and jewels, metals hard and soft are the most useful of these resources. What follows are some helpful points of trivia to keep in mind when dealing with the many common (and even uncommon) metals that your characters may encounter in his or her (or its) adventures. Masterwork items are considered to be made of steel, and non-masterwork items are assumed to be made of iron, unless otherwise noted. Coins are not made from pure (sterling) metals. Instead they are alloyed with lesser materials like tin and zinc, and are only about 9/10 sterling. 50 copper/silver coins weigh about 1 pound. 25 gold/platinum coins weigh about 1 pound. No more than 25,000 coins will fit in a cubic foot (typically it's more like 20,000). A neat stack of 15 coins will fit into a cubic inch (less neat assumes 10 to 12). Therefore a cubic foot of coins weighs anywhere from 400 to 1,000 pounds, depending on material and organization. Sterling bars are typically about 7 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 1.5 inches deep. Iron and steel bars typically weigh about 9 pounds each. Copper, bronze, and brass bars typically weigh about 10 pounds each. Silver bars typically weigh about 12 pounds each. Gold bars typically weigh about 21 pounds each. Platinum bars typically weigh about 24 pounds each. Brass, Copper, and Bronze trade for about 5 GP per bar, or 5 SP per pound. Iron trades for about 7 GP per bar, or 8 SP per pound. Steel trades for about 43 GP per bar, or 48 SP per pound. Silver trades for about 66 GP per bar, or 55 SP per pound. Gold trades for about 582 GP per bar, or 278 SP per pound. Platinum trades for about 6,665 GP per bar, or 2,778 SP per pound. = = = = = = = = = = = = Alloys (General): When alchemical or living alloys are applied to an existing metal, use the highest applicable values for hardness, hit points, and weight; use the sum of the the costs for all metals involved. Alchemical Alloys: Alchemical experimentation and metallurgical runesmithing have given rise to a wide variety of useful metals and alloys. A set of these alloys has been designed to meet certain particular needs of warriors and runesmiths. All alchemical alloys have the same hardness, weight, and costs as listed here, but a brief description has been provided with each type to distinguish them. Alchemical alloys can be applied (as if by template) to other metals unless that metal already has an alchemical alloy. Therefore starmetal can be made into a flamesteel starmetal weapon, but the resulting weapon could not also have songsteel or any other alloy applied to it. Alchemical Alloys have a hardness of 10, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 9 pounds and costs about 3,600 GP. Cost: Armor - +2,000/+4,000/+6,000 GP; Weapon, Item - +400 GP/pound Acerbisteel: Greenish alloy that condenses acidic slime on its surface when agitated. Weapons made from acerbisteel deal +1 acid damage per category, and armors provide the wearer with 1 point of electricity resistence per category. Flamesteel: Reddish alloy that heats dramatically when agitated. Weapons made from flamesteel deal +1 fire damage per category, and armors provide the wearer with 1 point of cold resistence per category. Shiversteel: Blue-tinted alloy that cools dramatically when agitated. Weapons made from shiversteel deal +1 cold damage per category, and armors provide the wearer with 1 point of fire resistence per category. Shocksteel: Pale alloy that discharges "static" electricity when agitated. Weapons made from shocksteel deal +1 electrical damage per category, and armors provide the wearer with 1 point of acid resistence per category. Songsteel: Dark alloy that vibrates enough to make a burst of resonant sound when agitated. Weapons made from songsteel deal +1 sonic damage per category, and armors provide the wearer with 2 points of sonic damage resistance per category. Alchemical Lead: So named for its dark color and great weight, alchemical lead does not suffer the extreme softness of its namesake. Weapons created from alchemical lead are treated as one size larger for purposes of dealing damage, but become Exotic weapons due to their unwieldy weight. Alchemical Lead has a hardness of 10, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 18 pounds and costs about 15 GP. Cost: Weapon, Item - As normal. Alchemical Silver: Alchemical silver gets its name from its natural silver color and relativeness softness. Created as an opposite to naturally present cold iron, alchemical silver represents barely-harnessed chaos and change. As a result, it tends to be highly destructive to very lawful creatures. On the other hand, it is not an ideal material from which to fashion weapons; weapons made from the substance deal -1 damage (to a minimum of 1 point of damage). Alchemical Silver has a hardness of 8, and 15 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 10 pounds and costs about 100 GP. Cost: Weapon, Item - +10 GP/pound Cold Iron: The ore that can become cold iron tends to be dark in color, faintly cool to the touch, and buried deep in the earth. It must be forged at a relatively low temperature and as a result has a tendency to appear primitively hammered and scraped even when crafted by a master. Because it is unalloyed, the metal is more brittle than steel or similar metals. Cold iron represents lawful forces in the universe--the unchanging end state of all matter. As a result, it tends to be highly destructive to very chaotic creatures. Cold Iron has a hardness of 10, and 20 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 9 pounds and costs about 15 GP. Cost: Twice normal. Magical enhancements cost an additional +2,000 GP over listed cost. Living Alloy: Formed when major nexuses of spiritual magic congregate near a deposit of copper, living copper is relatively easy to identify by the purplish veins running through the ore. The copper is then alloyed with tin, iron, and other metals to make a bronze-like alloy with unique properties. After one week of wear, armor made of living alloy shapes itself to its wearer, increasing the maximum Dex by 1, lowering armor check penalty by 1, and spell failure chance by 5%. Items made of living alloy heal 1 HP per minute, but cannot heal if brought to 0 HP or outright destroyed. Living Alloy is further special in that it can accept both Alchemical Alloy AND Runemetal as templates (it is the only metal that can stack Runemetal like a template). Living Alloy has a hardness of 8, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 10 pounds and costs about 500 GP. Cost: Armor - +1,000/+2,000/+3,000 GP; Weapon, Item - +50 GP/pound Mithral: Mithral is a rare, silvery, glistening metal that is lighter than iron but just as hard. When worked like steel, it becomes a wonderful material from which to create armor and is occasionally used for other items as well. Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations (for example, whether a barbarian can use his/her fast movement ability while wearing the armor). Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium and light armors are considered light. Spell failure chances for armors and shields made from mithral are decreased by 10%, maximum Dexterity bonus is increased by 2, and armor check penalties are decreased by 3. Metal nonarmor or nonshield items made from mithral weigh half as much as the same item made from other metals. Mithral items must be masterwork quality; the armor benefits of mithral do not stack with those provided by masterwork quality, but the weapon benefits do. Mithral has a hardness of 15, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 4 pounds and costs about 1,600 GP. Cost: Armor - +1,000/+4,000/+9,000 GP; Weapon, Item - +400 GP/pound Netherforged: This steel-alloyed metal is dark and glimmering, and has only appeared recently. It seems to have been developed by one or more of the criminal guilds in the ruined city of Kaddegh. When a weapon made of this metal is used to kill a sentient being, the being's soul is trapped in the weapon. The weapon can only hold one soul at a time, and releases a currently held soul if used to kill another creature. A creature whose soul is held in this way can not be returned to life on any plane of existence until its soul is released. Most smiths will not be familiar with this metal, and the true masters will be able to discern its vile purpose. Netherforged has a hardness of 10, and 30 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 9 pounds and costs about 18,000 GP. Cost: Weapon - +2,000 GP/pound Runemetal: Runemetal is actually a type of bronze made primarily for the use of metallurgical runesmiths and warriors who spend a great deal of time in their company. Over time, and with familiarity, a piece of equipment made entirely or primarily from runemetal accumulates ambient magic and attunes itself to its user. This tendency to "remember" causes such runemetal equipment to slowly and subtly become what its owner most needs, or embodies. Raw runemetal has a hardness of 8, and 20 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs 10 pounds and can be worth more than a kingdom if its nature is known. Cost: Effectively priceless. Starmetal: The deep green metal is taken from asteroids, and is possessed of an extraordinary connection to the material plane. The ultrahard metal made from its alloy adds to the quality of a weapon or suit of armor. Weapons fashioned from starmetal have a natural ability to bypass hardness when sundering weapons or attacking objects, ignoring hardness less than 20. Armor made from starmetal grants its wearer additional damage reduction of 1/- if it’s light armor, 2/- if it’s medium armor, and 3/- if it’s heavy armor. All shields made from starmetal provide an additional +1 bonus to Armor Class. Starmetal is so costly that weapons and armor made from it are always of masterwork quality; masterwork benefits apply to any object crafted from the stuff and should be added to the price. Objects normally made of steel that are made of starmetal alloy have one-third more hit points than normal. Weapons made from starmetal do +1 damage per weapon category to outsiders. Starmetal alloy has a hardness of 20, and 40 HP/inch of thickness; a sterling bar weighs about 10 pounds and costs about 10,000 GP. Cost: Armor - +5,000/+10,000/+15,000 GP; Weapon, Item - +1,000 GP/pound ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTHER Alchemical Wax: A curious type of wax made by alchemists to enhance the properties of alchemical alloys. This material is a soft, translucent wax that must be kept in a container and applied to metal surfaces by cloth. When applied to a weapon or armor made from one of the alchemical alloys, the wax doubles the elemental effects of that object. For example, a shocksteel greatsword with alchemical wax applied to it would deal +6 electrical damage instead of +3. A shiversteel chain shirt with the wax applied to it would provide 2 points of fire resistance instead of just 1. The benefits of one application of alchemical wax last for a single encounter in which the weapon or armor are agitated (i.e. its alchemical property is used). One container of alchemical wax has 30 applications, and one application is required for each category of weapon or armor (the greatsword above would require 3 applications, and the chain shirt would use only 1). A container of alchemical wax is about 60 cubic inches (usually in a round bowl 6 inches across), weighs about 1 pound (much of that is the container), and costs 100 GP except in the Lakelands, where the material is more common (and cheaper). Dragonhide: Made from the scales and hides of great dragons, so-called dragonhide armor is strong and infused with some of the magic that is part of what makes dragons the terrifying predators that they are. One dragon produces enough hide for a single suit of masterwork scale armor for a creature one size category smaller than the dragon. By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half- plate for a creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller. In each case, enough hide is available to produce a small or large masterwork shield in addition to the armor, provided that the dragon is Large or larger. Because dragonhide armor isn’t made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty. Dragonhide armor provides its wearer with several useful abilities: the ability to sleep in the dragonhide armor without becoming fatigued; the ability to check for fatigue during a hustle or forced march every 2 hours instead of every hour; the ability to ignore one fear effect per day (the use of this ability is automatic and occurs the first time a fear effect is applied to the wearer); and finally the armor itself immune to the energy type its dragon was immune to, and passes on 5 resistance per armor category of that energy type to its user. By employing higher quality workmanship, or adding additional scales from other dragons, a single suit of dragonhide armor can grant additional abilities. Dragonhide has a hardness of 10, and 10 HP/inch of thickness. Cost: Double normal masterwork. Wood: Pine/fir 0.3 GP/pound Oak/maple 0.6 GP/pound Spruce 1.0 GP/pound Darkwood 20.0 GP/pound Heartsblood 100.0 GP/pound Ironwood 200.0 GP/pound Spellwood 5,000.0 GP/pound Metals: Copper/brass/bonze 0.5 GP/pound Iron 0.8 GP/pound Steel 4.8 GP/pound Silver 5.5 GP/pound Gold 27.8 GP/pound Platinum 277.8 GP/pound Alchemical Alloys 400.0 GP/pound Acerbisteel Flamesteel Shiversteel Shocksteel Songsteel Alchemical Lead 0.8 GP/pound Alchemical Silver 11.1 GP/pound Cold Iron 1.7 GP/pound Living Alloy 50.0 GP/pound Mithral 400.0 GP/pound Netherforged 2,000.0 GP/pound Runemetal Starmetal 1,000.0 GP/pound Other: Alchemical Wax Dragonhide