HMS APPOLYON - Living Costs and Basic Equipment

Rustgate Living

As Part of my new campaign of HMS Apollyon exploration I've decided to modify my price lists and downtime actions.  Below are housing options and a list of equipment.  It is worth noting that each of the Factions in Sterntown can provide their adherents with better equipment at a lesser price, as well as specialty items.

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Life is cheap in the Rustgates, both in the sense that there is little protection for those without patrons or money to buy protection, and in that an individual can survive relatively cheaply eating from the various food vendors and gin shops while buying space in one of the many flophouses.   This sort of lifestyle, revolving around substance abuse, bad food and the constant threat of casual violence is not especially healthy, but its worst elements can be mitigated by spending gold.  

Each Expense Below has two categories Residence/Dining a character may spend money on each category, in addition to an actual carousing. The categories are cumulative, thus a session where the character runs out of money and lives like a hobo during the downtime means that next session they will have -2 HP per Hit Die.  Conversely a week of the high life might cost 1,000 GP but it allows the character to reroll twice  in the next session.

Many factions provide their members with at least the basic level of sustenance during downtime.  For example, any member of the Scavenger’s Union may sleep in its barracks (a flophouse) for free between sessions, but their food expenses are not covered, while Vory members are often asked to pay a vig of 10%  - 25% of their earnings for housing and food up to the Boarding House level.

Downtime Expense	Cost	Effect
Sleeping Rough/Dumpster Diving	None	- 1 HP/per HD (minimum 1 HP)
Bar Floor/ Booze and Snacks	5 GP	None
Flophouse/Noodle Shops	15 GP	+ 1 HP
Boarding House/ Hearty Food	50 GP	+ 1 to Saving Throws
Private Room /Fine Dining	100 GP	+1 HP/per HD
Sybaritic Luxury/Strange Drugs	500 GP	+1 Reroll

 

Equipment

Equipment may be purchased in the Rust Gates or the other bazaars of Sterntown, but this is simple, frequently worn out, often shoddy and generally overpriced.  The same craftsmen generally supply their finer equipment to the armories and stockpiles of the various factions aboard the Apollyon who provide it or sell it to their partisans.  General adventuring equipment is also readily available, but tend to be priced higher, as when vendors see scavengers (generally deemed to be both spendthrift and moderately wealthy) the prices for even mundane items go up.  Most scavengers try to find patronage with local organizations (criminal, civic, religious or financial) fairly quickly to cut their downtime costs.

R

Melee Weapons	Modifiers	Cost
Cudgel		5
Dagger	Close	10
Whip	Light/Entangling	10
Cestus/spiked knuckles	Close	10
War crowbar/military pick	Piercing	20
Spear/trident	Reach	20
Ball and Chain	Entangling	20
Boarding axe	Cleaving	20
Mace	Piercing	25
Cleaver/Falchion/Cutlass	Cleaving	25
Maul	Great/Piercing	25
Rapier/Smallsword	Finesse	50
Executioner’s Sword	Great/Cleaving	100
Missile Weapons	Modifiers	Cost
Hatchet/Tomahawk/Chakram (3)	Preemptive	10
Javelin (3)	Ranged	10
Throwing Knives (3)	Preemptive	15
Light Crossbow	Ranged	55
Heavy Crossbow	Ranged/Piercing/Slow (1)	150
Gonne (Pistol)	Explosive/Preemptive/Slow (3)	100
Gonne (Musket)	Ranged/Explosive/Slow (3)	150
Blunderbuss	Preemptive/Explosive/Slow/Burst (4)	125
Ammunition	Serves	Cost
Bolts (20)	Crossbow	20
Ball (20)	Gonne	5
Shot (10)	Blunderbuss	5
Powder (30)	Gonne/Blunderbuss	30
Munitions	Effect	Cost
Whale Oil/Alcohol Bomb*	Splash (2) Light/Burns	10
Grenado	Splash (4) Heavy	50
Pyrotechnic Rocket*	Premptive/Light	5

U

Scavenger’s Equipment	Effects	Cost
Torch (x3)	Light for 3/(30’) Duration (1)	5
Lantern	Light for 4/(40’) Duration (2)	30
Flask of Whale Oil*	Refills lantern	5
Glow Kelp Bulb*	Light for 1/(5’) Duration (4)	15
Rope	50’ of heavy rope	10
Grapple	Entangling/Light	15
Net	Entangling/Preemptive	10
Rations	1 Week Dehydrated/canned Rations	10
Dried Meat	1 Week, usually Dried Fish	15
Skin or bottle of alcohol	Kelp arrack or mushroom wine	10
Lard/Fat/Grease	A 1 lb block for lubrication or food	5
Iron Spikes and Mallet (6)	Jams doors and devices	5
Hand Mirror	Can reflect gaze attacks	5
1 Lb chalk/charcoal/flour	Dust, may help detect invisible	5
10’ Pole (with hook)	Light/Reach	5
Shovel/Pick	Light	10
Hex cage*	Suppresses Magic	50
Devil Shells*	Delay Devils	150
Door Charge*	Blows open locked doors	150
Specialist’s Tools*	A professional’s tools	100

Oil or Alcohol Bomb Specially manufactured incendiary devices designed for ease of use.  Most are little more than glazed ceramic orbs stoppered with wax and trailing a wick (at 10 GP), but they can be more complex, up to the point where they involve “self-shattering glass” tubes containing “binary accelerants” triggered by a “phosphoric devil” (100 GP apiece).  Most adventurers opt for the cheaper variety, though others prefer to make their own bombs from flasks of lamp oil.  The only advantage to a prepared incendiary bomb is that it takes a round to shove an oily cloth into a normal flask of oil to prepare it.

Pyrotechnic Rocket   Less a weapon then a signaling device or distraction, these hefty rockets are usually paper tubes filled with various chemics and combustibles that will burn quickly and brightly to create a variety of  rosette, cascade, flare, and globe effects in many different colors.  Each rocket comes with enough fuse to delay launch up to a turn.  As an improvised weapon, pyrotechnic rockets are useless at all but the shortest ranges, as the explode with limited force, have no accuracy and burn fairly coolly. 

Flask of Whale Oil Cheap, portable lamps aboard the Apollyon use whale oil or other, more foul smelling oils extracted from a variety of sea life.  The oil is highly volatile and a glass or ceramic flask of the stuff can be converted into a firebomb with a shred of torn cloth and a round of preparation.  Oil lamps are popular amongst scavengers for this dual use, as even the lamp can be hurled as a last ditch defense, its internal glass reservoir often exploding on impact.  More expensive oil-free lamps: phosphor jars, luminescent grubs, lime wands and even voltaic orbs are available to wealthier patrons, but in the markets of the Rustgate oil lamps predominate.

Glow Kelp Bulb The bladder of a bioluminescent kelp bulb, pickled in chemics.  When agitated these bulbs glow, providing heatless, colorful light for a longer period of time.  While not much brighter than a candle, glow kelp has an advantage in that it can be used underwater.  Glow kelp bulbs come in a variety of colors, though green is most common, and in a stable environment glow kelp can last up to a month.  The constant jostling of carrying them as a light source tends either puncture glow kelp’s thin membrane or burn the bioluminescent chemicals inside within a day or less.

Hex Cage Protective fetishes commonly made by Frogtown shaman, Ship Spirit practitioners  and the Queen’s Priests these items take a variety of forms from the traditional cage of tiny bones to brass filigree icons. Imbued with magical proscriptions and wards when affixed to a point a Hex Cage will render an area of 10’ in diameter uncomfortable to magical creatures such as outsiders and elementals as well as suppress magic (giving a -1 to any roll involving magic and a +1 to any save against it).  Once affixed a Hex Cage cannot be removed without destroying its effect.

 

Devil Shells Traditionally sold in velvet satchels inscribed with the pitchfork glyph of the nine hells, these strange objects are very useful when dealing with Devils.  The shells themselves are small spiraled shells, like those of a nautilus but colored with fierce red and black stripes and possessing strange geometries that are unwise to contemplate for more than a few moments.  When the shells are strewn before an outsider originating in the Hells the creature’s obsessive orderliness will often compel it to stop and count the shells, giving time to flee.  More intelligent Devils will often be able to ignore the compulsion for a while and even the most unintelligent will not stop fighting to count shells, however, eventually all devils will be compelled to return and count the shells.  Devils do not like being annoyed, and forcing them to catalogue and pick up shells will infuriate them.

Door Charge A solid iron cone with a wick coming from its narrow end and spikes on its wide end.  The charge is a device to blast open doors, and rather than relying on pure force it depends on the iron cone directing its blast against the locking mechanism of the door.  The charge is likely to blast a fist sized hole through even a reinforced door up to an inch thick, but is rarely strong enough to spring one of the Apollyon’s locking hatches or security doors.  The spikes are designed to affix the charge to wooden doors, while a large lump of tar acts as a secondary adhesive for doors that the spikes cannot get a purchase in.  A door charge takes a turn to set properly, and ignite, opening doors on a 5 in 6 chance.  

Specialist’s Tools A bundle of tools that a Specialist or other individual with an specific aptitude or career finds useful and necessary for pursuing their skills.  The lockpicks of a thief are the most iconic, but an assassin or alchemists tools for the storing and collection of poison or a bag of surgeon’s tools are also included in the category.  Specialist’s Tools do not represent the full kit necessary for setting up a shop or library, only the basic equipment necessary to practice  a specific art while traveling or exploring.