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Wednesday, July 2, 2014

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.


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.

2 comments:

  1. Anything involving ASE always delivers! Do you have any plans to publish this as a full book?

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    Replies
    1. This Player manual is unrelated to ASE, but to my own setting. I currently have no publication plans.

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