Shadows danced across the forest clearing in the gentle breeze as the fading days light filtered through the swaying leaves, several small rabbits grazed cautiously unaware of the man watching them from the cover of branches of young yew tree.
Duncan silently cursed his travelling companions lack of preparation under his breath as he shuffled trying to bring life back into his numb back, to be fair though no one had expected the mudslide that had injured the young priests leg.

The boys divine gift had healed his wound but the fever that followed left him weaken and had slowed their pace considerably and only he had bought more trail rations than those required for their return journey to Tymburg and those had run out now with just over a days trail left. His thoughts were interrupted by a Hawks cry above the now startled rabbits starting to flee, giving up on the chance of a deer Duncan drew back his notched arrow and let it fly.


Its an interesting fact that both 1st and 2nd edition AD&D and various Dragon Magazine articles did include rules for skinning and values of pelts, however these rules were not included in later editions.
Since then a lot of players have often slain a huge beast and have inquired how or if they could use anything from their fallen foe. This article series aims to expand this question and introduce some new items and uses.

While the Survival skill is the most commonly used Craft (Taxidermy) and Profession (Hunter) can also be used to recover valuable parts from slain creatures.
Other useful skills will include Appraise or Profession (Hunter) which can be used to gauge the value of such an item, Knowledge (Nature) could help as well to identify animals with valuable pelts while Knowledge (Arcana) can be used to recognise creatures with spell component uses.