As the torch lit shadows danced across Duncan’s face he surveyed the cave “Well I’m glad you all brought extra rations this time but we must be careful and conserve what we can.” looking over to his dwarven companion he found Sandell already answering the question he was about to ask. “Well there's too much snow to dig through without tools if you wish to keep all your fingers.. though we are in luck. This stone looks worked.. crudely so its not my clans work but if it was some human prospector we may find some tools we can use further in.” Stepping past the group so the torch would no longer hinder his darkvision  the dwarf surveyed darkness of the cavern ahead. Holding his hand out to signal to the others not to advance yet the dwarf stepped forward across the icy stone floor, his free hand now moving to his pack unhooking the throwing axe drawing it slowly he raised his arm if taking aim before hurling it towards the darkness of the ceiling.  

The darkness seemed to get even blacker for a moment before a startled bat fluttered down panicked as Isabel rolled her eyes shaking her head “You missed the bat.”, responding with an annoyed grunt Sandell  waved his hand dismissively “I wasn’t aiming for the bat...” a stalactite seemed to sway for a moment before dropping to the floor, stepping towards the now dead  Darkmantle Sandell retrieved his axe with a smug grin. “Well now we have dinner.”

Welcome to part 4 of the Survival Out in the Wilds series, in this last article we are now going to address possible uses of beasts and monsters as food, the possible things to consider and if Orc really is the other white meat.
This article is a little different from the others, its not going to be as rules focus as the previous three as Craft cooking has an excellent rule variant already available on the D&D wiki provided by the user Eiji which I will post a brief overview of below:

Table: Skill Synergies

Epic Check

You can cook foods that have an almost magical quality to them.

Advanced Cooking
Certain recipes possesses advanced cooking methods which mimic spells. You may only benefit from these cooking based spell effects 1/day, though you may cook any number of meals you wish.
In general, the formula is DC 20 + (10 x spell level) (cantrips are just 25), and typically with a lower caster level to not as to outdo actual magic. For example, a Cure Light Wounds effect would likely be DC 30. Appropriate material components in the form of ingredients should always be provided.
As you can see these rules are extremely simple and quite effective at making the craft skill useful but not overpowered, I’ve refrained from listing any particular special meals for now though I may cover these in a future article.
As a basic rule of thumb most animals are edible when cooked for long enough apart from a few rare cases however it should be noted that with more unusual creatures the Survival skills from our first article should be used to prepare the creature before cooking.

Here is a few points to consider when your players decide to start preparing dinner:

1. Eating Sentient creatures intentionally is consider an evil act and taboo by many cultures.
This may seem obvious and various races are known for this (Orcs, goblins and kobolds) however you have to remember not all sentient races are humanoid nor are they immediately recognisable as sentient, there have been some cases of some parties killing and eating monsters only to later find out that the monsters are sentient.
The initial case can be considered an accident (in the case of alignment, the locals may still be angry)  but if the party does not regret their actions or continues to hunt these creatures they are definitely committing evil acts.
Eating the flesh of sentient humanoid regularly also runs the risk of ghoulification or in the case of brain eating risk exposure to the hard to detect and deadly prion and is addictive.  

2. Carnivores probably have a higher incidence of parasites and possible toxins, due to biomagnification.
If you are not familiar with about biomagnification I suggest the wikipedia article for more details but in game the effects of this are relatively minor but here is an example of how it can be used from one of my previous campaigns:
The party has recently killed a Dire Boar on the way to a mages tower and fancy pork chops for dinner, boars do actually eat smaller animals and rodents and this Dire Boar been eating the local rats and Dire rats from around the tower.
These rats have been living off the trash from the tower which includes spoiled potions, old remnants of spell components and even the odd discharge magic item or creature, each ingesting a small amount of magical pollution which is then passed up the food chain to the Dire Boar becoming more concentrated and powerful before been passed onto the characters eating the Dire Boar who lack any of its natural built up resistances. This can be particularly deadly in real life though in the game above one character’s skin turned green for 5 hours and another grew a cat tail.

3. Just because its edible or tastes nice doesn’t mean your characters will actually be able to stomach it.
Have you ever been offered fried insects, bulls testicles, sheep's eyes, raw octopus, codfish sperm or Haggis?
Some of these are delicious but by simply knowing what they are or their appearance when served has caused people to vomit or wretch so why would your characters be any different?
In certain cases it may be suitable to have the player roll a Fortitude check to eat (or keep down) the meal at a basic DC of 12 which you should modify to the situation.   

4. How to describe the taste?
I’ve found that the actual difficulty with players who wish to have cooks as characters is when cooking a monster or creature for the first time, they often want a detailed description of the taste.
I find the best solution is to often compare it to existing meals, this can be quite difficult on some occasions especially for the stranger creatures.

If you are having trouble with description it should be noted that carnivores typically have stringy, unpalatable meat with a greasy very distinctly metallic gamey taste, also due to going up the food chain, each consumer processes minerals and vitamins, leaving behind meat with less nutritional value than the food it consumed, with carnivores yielding the least nutritional value. This means the character probably wouldn’t feel as much energy after eating it as he would when eating a steak or turkey meal.

Finally regarding our last topic regarding orcs, the answer should be no unless your using the old boar headed orcs in which case the answer changes to maybe.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this series of articles as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them and please feel free to post any comments or to contact me.

Quick Link: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Grimacing as he bit once more into the cooked rubbery flesh Samuel chewed slowly barely swallowing his meal as he looked on in amazement at Isabel hastily devouring the greasy meat of the darkmantle.  Shuffling towards her trying to distance himself from the small campfire as Sandell cooked another skewered tentacle he plucked up the courage to ask the question “With no disrespect to Sandell’s cooking and thanking the divines for the food, I have to ask how can you eat this so... eagerly.
A look of contemplation crossing her face the young Enchantress paused for a moment before answering “Well when I was an apprentice nearly every meal I ate was porridge so I enjoy the chance to eat anything new after so long..” taking a handkerchief from her she started cleaning her fingers and lips as Sandell nodded approvingly as his rough chuckle echoed in the cave. “Ahh then you’ll be in for treat when we get to my clans outpost, blind deep fish cooked in ale sauce with three different type of mushroom, perhaps with a side of goat.”
As the dwarf stroked his beard imagining the  feast Samuel felt Isabel press against his side now giving him a sly playful smile behind her handkerchief  as she whispered to him “It also helps that the first cantrip I learnt let me give anything the flavour I chose.. I think I be practising it alot if we’re both to to survive honoured grandfathers cooking and his clans hospitality.”   

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Well as the pumpkins are cleared from the street and the stores covert all the Halloween aisles to upcoming Christmas deals I hope you all had a fun Halloween, while my own was spent with friends eating far too many sugary treats and takeaways while watching old B movies and Mystery Science Theater some people out there did some amazing stuff.

I am personally looking forward to seeing what DeviantArt user Ceemdee has created this year with their impressive pumpkin carving, for those of you that haven't seen her work here are a few examples from 2012:

Shadow of the Colossus and Bastion

For anyone who would like to have a try Extremepumpkins.com has a tutorial for beginners.

Finally for you still in the mood for some horror to inflict on your fellow players on the gaming table I highly recommend watching Will Wheaton's Youtube series Tabletop, recently he played the classic horror game Betrayal at the House on the Hill a board game published by Avalon Hill (and more recently by Wizards of the Coast). Players all begin as allies, exploring a haunted house filled with dangers, traps, items and Omens. As players explore the mansion, new room tiles are chosen at random; until enough Hauntings and Omens have occurred and the scenario is discovered with one player often been a traitor.     
In any case its well worth a watch, but now its time to finish the Out in the Wilds series of articles.

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"Tell me why are we doing this again?" Isabel shivered drawing the heavy Worg fur cloak around her as they climbed their way over the rocky mountain path, the sound of the thin snow crunching underfoot and wind almost drowning out her voice.
"These potions must be delivered before the winter snows stops all travel through the mountains for the season and since stone giants are blocking the main pass.." Duncan moved beside her now helping her climb another boulder as she sighed "Couldn't we just get rid of them?"

Sandell grunted from the front of the group as his experienced eyes picked their path "All they want is their sacred statue back, I say when we get to Pryham we find the damm thief who stole it. Anyway I've travelled this mountain for 60 years I'll get us there... hows the leg holding up Samuel?"
The young priest leaning on his quarterstaff grinned from under the thick hood, his gloved fingers playing along the wood "I'm doing fine honoured grandfather with divine grace I've been blessed with health though I'm grateful for these cloaks and gloves Duncan made." The dwarf 's spluttering at the phrase honoured grandfather caused Duncan to smile, it seemed the priest had developed a sense of humour since his fever.  

Welcome to part 3 of the Survival Out in the Wilds series, in the last article we covered possible effects using monster hide and shell would have in crafting armour.  In this article we are now going to have a quick look at what uses other bits of a creature can be.

Our main topic will be the spell reagent rule, this rule set is simple but does rely on firm knowledge of a spells material components and some personal ruling for the DM thus is best for a player or DM that knows his choice of spells well.
In theory it works by the spell caster using a rare and more powerful spell components in the place of (or in addition to) the material components of the spell, granting the in game advantage of up to +3 additional caster level onto the spell depending on the component used.
Casting a spell using a spell reagent does not affect the casting time and uses the reagent up along with the material component. A reagent costs 25gp per point of bonus it grants (25gp, 50gp or 75gp respectively) and can only be used for the spell it was purchased for. However feel free to alter this cost however you wish as the rule set was primarily designed for players to gather their own.

To help understanding we’ll cover a series of examples:
The general enhancement spells such as Bull’s Strength and Bear’s Endurance are the easiest ones to judge and serve as a good introductory point as the material components involved in these spells are usually the fur, feather or dung of the creature the spell is named after.

So if our spellcaster wished to enhance Cat’s Grace he could replace the normal material component of cats fur with the fur of a large cat such as a lion, this would most likely only grant a +1 bonus to caster level however it could be easily argued that due to non magical nature of the animal no bonus should be rewarded.  
A more reliable reagent would be the fur of a suitable Dire Creature so a Dire Lion for this example, this would grant a +2 bonus to the caster level of the spell.
Now our spellcaster wants to cast Bull’s Strength and has a powered Minotaur Horn using this instead of bulls dung (in addition of not smelling) this would grant a +2 bonus to caster level unless it was a Minotaur Lord in which case a +3 might be allowed. Another alternative would be the silver horns of a gorgon which like the Minotaur Lord could also increase the reagents power to a +3 bonus , as general rule the more powerful and suitable the creature is to a spell the greater the bonus.
In the above example this is due to both creatures having a very bull like nature, simply using the horns of a strong creature such as some breed of dragons would not be suitable.

Simple enough so far however things quickly get interesting when more vague creatures come into play for example the Owlbear, it could be used for both Bear’s Endurance and Owl’s Wisdom however due to its dual nature a Spellcraft check DC equal to 15 + spell level would be appropriate to cast.
Consequences for failing the check could be that the spell just doesn’t cast or perhaps some side effects may occur depending on the reagent used, such as gaining a +2 to Constitution and Wisdom instead of +4 to a single statistic or the effect of Rage spell in addition on the person receiving the spell which lasts as long as the original spell is on them.

Other examples of alternative components would be adding a reagent to a spell or improving an existing component rather than replacing though this only works with spells that already have a material component as the example below.
The Displacement spell requires the material component of a small loop of leather, if a spell caster tried to use a Displacer beasts fur as an alternative without the loop would most likely require a Spellcraft check similar to above (as the the shape of the loop is important to the spell.) Using both components together would suffer no problems and would grant a +1 or +2 bonus however a loop made from Displacer beast fur would grant a +2 or +3 bonus.

For a general rule if you believe a spell reagent doesn’t quite fit a spellcraft check should be made using the DC 15 + spell level. Additional factors such as age or damage could cause additional difficulty to the spell. For example Using the fur of a summoned or polymorphed creature for a reagent should increase the DC.

As stated at the start this rule does require a bit of monitoring by the DM though in my previous experiences the party wizard often begins making his own catalog of spell reagents, which has led to some interesting adventures where the wizard has marched the party off to collect the ideal materials.

One further detail to be addressed is the number of reagents recovered from slaying a creature, this can cause a few arguments as after all an owlbear has a lot of fur and feathers and some players believe they should have at least 50-60 spell reagents from the body.
For the best balance I’d say about 5-10 usable reagents are available however this was mostly to balance the cost of the party selling reagents back to other mages.

The next article will focus on the juicy insides of the beasts and answer the question of just how does Dragon taste?

Quick Link: Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

“60 years grandfather? How much of it was spent lost?" the gentle teasing clashed with the mild irritation in Isabels voice, it was nearing nightfall and still they had not reached Sandell's clans mining post.
"Well we would of been there two hours ago if I was travelling with dwarves.. anyway be careful there's a cave opening ahead." grumbled Sandell who not minding the cold found his temper wearing thin with the complaints of the Enchantress.
Over the howling wind Duncan could swear he heard a familiar noise, his eyes now scanning the darkening skies they focused a circling bird possibly a hawk weaving unnaturally almost as if intended to noticed. His gaze dropping as it passed over the mountainside above he found his throat tightening as he spotted what the creature was trying to signal. "THE CAVE RUN NOW".

Almost scrambling he rushes over the rock grasping Isabel's arm as he passes pulling her surprised form into a sprint, the others knowing him better do not question what would cause the normally quiet man to shout and simply run. "Not again.. by the nine hells." Samuels pain voice cries out as slipping only to find the dwarfs powerful hand catching him a grim grin on his face "I agree now come on."
A growing thunder of noise above them the group barely reached the cave as the avalanche of snow and ice crashed over the entrance sealing it. Panting heavily in the pitch blackness the group tried to recover their breath, the silence broken by chuckle from Sandell "Swept away in a flood as a child, hit by a mudslide and now nearly crushed in an avalanche.. I think your god wants a personal audience Samuel." the young priests face shook his head smirking "Well I guess his Divine grace will have to learn to be patient."

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Well another year is over for The Asylum and I must say it seems like it was a roaring success with my personal congratulations going out to Major Tinker and the rest of the volunteer staff involved.
This isn't to say it didn't have its share of problems such as the typical British bad weather (a surprising first for the event as all previous years had the fortune of bright sunshine), a bomb scare in early hours of the morning Lincoln castle and the staff at The Venue causing all kind of issues, its to their credit that practically all of these problems went unnoticed by those attending.

Of my own experience there is three items I wish to highlight:

First of all the sad departure of Kit Cox, stand-up comedian, leading exponent of Steampunk and counsellor for British soldiers returning from war zones. Mr Cox has previously taken part in hosting events at the Asylum under his alter ego Major Jack Union  and is particularly know for his lectures and book both known as "How to Bag a Jabberwock: A Practical Guide to Monster Hunting". This is not to say Mr Cox will not be attending the events at all in the future but it will be as a visitor rather than as a member of staff.
For those interested there is a well written review of the book written by Magda Knight and a copy can be purchased from Amazon here.

The second point which was actually my most enjoyable experience of the Asylum was meeting Mrs Lynne Hardy the creator of Cogs, Cakes & SwordSticks, it is rare I purchase a roleplay game (or indeed anything) purely on the personal impression of a writer upon me but Mrs Hardy has genuine love for Steampunk and roleplay which can't help but make a person smile. The game itself does not disappoint and I was fortunate enough to take part in a short game with Mrs Hardy and she really brought out the strengths of the extremely simple system, in the near future I intend to write and post a small series of adventures for the system which Mrs Hardy has offer to read herself so I hope you look forward to this.
A free preview of the system is available from RPG now and for those interested in Mrs Lynne Hardy beyond Modiphius her own blog is available here.

The final highlight of the event which I wish to share is the excellent 7 piece band The Mechanisms who performed the grim tale of  "Ulysses Dies at Dawn" at The Venue on the Sunday and put on an amazing show, I could tell you more but that would spoil the story but I highly recommend a listen here and to give them some support.

And lastly a bit of personal news I discovered today as I wrote this I am the fortunate winner of the Prize Promenade and will be shortly receiving a rather fine deerstalker hat, the free contest entries were provided with the event guides at sign in for the event and consisted of a mix of questions and a scavenger hunt based around the various venues of the event. Completing all the questions and finding all the stamps would allow your form to be entered into the prize draw, amusingly from the various stamp holders I spoke to during the weekend I may of been the only person to fully complete the event.

So if you attend next year and find a small competition form with your event guide, feel free to put it in your back pocket or purse and forget all about it, I would quite enjoy another hat.

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“No its ruined…” The dwarf’s deep voice echoed in the cave heightening the sense of frustration in it as he tossed the tattered stained silks back to the stone floor, “Be lucky if it sells at half the price if the merchant even wants it back now..”.  Duncan nodded listening as he retrieved his arrows from the bodies of the goblins holding each shaft high checking for damage “I believe payment was only for the return of his goods and there’s no bounty on these bandits… still one less future problem.”

“Sandell perhaps if I were to use some of my minor cantrips upon them, clean them up at bit or at least get rid of that smell.. Ugh you think the Goblins wouldn’t do that in their bedding.” their newest member the young enchantress Isabel moved over to the dwarf  her fingers toying with the pouch on her belt. “Lass if you can get THAT smell out, I’ll give you half my portion from this job.” the dwarf quipped back hefting his waraxe back into its holder.  

In the last article we discussed skill choices and DC's for the adventurers skinning their latest monster and some example prices for hides, this article we aim to give a few rules on just how much hide you get from a monster for crafting and what kind of advantages it brings.

While rules exist in the Dungeon Master's Guide and Pathfinder's Core Rulebook regarding Dragonhide and the amount hide needed to craft armour, there has been a lot of complaints from players regarding downgrade in abilities from 2nd Edition D&D and the sheer amount of hide required to make anything.
This will be focused upon in detail in a later article but these issues highlight why it is not suitable for a general ruling to be used on other materials,  however the rules regarding Chitin armour listed in Races of the Dragon (Quoted below) have made a much better ground work to create the rule set suggested here.

Races of the Dragon pg121
A single giant beetle provides enough material to create a single breastplate or tower shield sized for a character of the same size category as the beetle (or two such items for a character two or more sizes smaller than the beetle). For example, a Large giant stag beetle has enough chitin to make either a breastplate or a tower shield sized for a Large
character, or two such items for Medium or smaller characters. A suit of half-plate or full plate armor takes twice as much chitin, while a light shield or heavy shield takes half as much. (A chitin buckler can be made from the cast-off bits of any giant beetle.) The chitin from multiple giant beetles can be combined; a Small beetle counts as half of a Medium beetle, a Medium beetle as half of a Large beetle, and so forth

So taking this as our example:

A single creature provides enough material to create a single suit of light or medium armour (Hide, Scale or Breastplate depending on the creature) or a tower shield for a character of the same size category.
Two items can be created for a character one or more size categories smaller than the creature or four items for a characters four or more size categories smaller.
A suit of heavy armour takes twice as much material, while a buckler, a light or heavy shield takes half as much.
Small trinkets can be made from a number of cast offs, for items like cloaks treat them as a single suit of light armour while smaller items such as boots and gloves use the same amount of material as a light shield.

Of course this is subjected to common sense for example skinning a Wolf would provide enough material for Leather, Studded Leather or Hide armour or a leather buckler or hide light shield, you wouldn't be able to create a tower shield despite the rules as a wolf doesn't provide suitable materials.  It should also be remembered that most materials will also have to processed by a hide worker or tanner before they can be used in crafting.

Next looking at some possible effects of using unusual hide to make armour, rather than listing the effect of every creature individually here is some common questions by players.


Does it increase the armour/shield bonus?

The following method works well by preventing low CR monster from unbalancing the game at low level but rewarding at high level, it repeatedly mentioned on many roleplaying forums and the version below has been expanded to include shields:

Start with the natural armour bonus of the creature and divide it by three, rounding down.
This number is the basic non-magical armor bonus for a suit of heavy armour.
For a suit of medium armour you subtract 3 from this number.
For a suit of light armour you subtract 5 from this number.

For shields again start with the natural armour bonus of the creature and divide it by three, rounding down.
Halving this number this is the basic non-magical shield bonus of a tower shield.
For a heavy shield you subtract a additional 1 from this number.
For a light shield you subtract a additional 3 from this number.

If the value is less than the regular armour/shield bonus of the crafted armour then the material just has a visual effect and uses the normal armour bonus of the armour type.

So for an example: A Bulette (CR7) has a natural armour bonus of +12, dividing this by three equals a armour bonus of 4 for heavy armour or 2 for a tower shield (4 halved). Since both of these are below the normal ratings these are increased to 7 (splint mail) and 4 (Tower shield) respectively and have little effect on the armours abilities other than visual.  
A stronger creature like an Black Scorpion (CR15) has a natural armour bonus of +28, breaking down to 9 for heavy armour and 5 (rounded up from 4.5) for a Tower Shield. In addition the Black Scorpion armour would class as Chitin armour and gain any further benefits due to this.

Does it increase the maximum dexterity bonus?

In most cases it is easier to assume that the maximum dexterity bonus remains the same as the original armour unless the creature possesses an exceptionally light and strong shell or scales. Existing examples of this are Chitin armour which has been mentioned.

Races of the dragon pg121
Chitin Armor: The maximum Dexterity bonus of an armor or shield made chitin is 1 greater than that of the same type of armor made from metal. Breastplates, half-plate armor, full plate armor and shields can be made from chitin.

What effect does it have on the armour check penalty and spell failure?

The armour check penalty and spell failure is more of a result of the armours design rather than its material again this will often be unchanged, however armour made from particular heavy or bulky creatures may increase. Though I recommend by no more than +2 armour check penalty and +5% arcane spell failure on top of the armours normal penalties.

Handling addition effects.

Regarding a creatures natural damage reduction and resistances I have personally found the following system has worked well in many campaigns adding minor benefits while not unbalancing play.

Creatures resistance/damage reduction   Amount gained by wearer.
5                                                            1
10                                                          5
11+                                                        10

For example if a creature had 5 damage reduction bypassed by magic weapons, armour made from its skin would gain 1 damage reduction/magic.
The armour itself retains full damage reduction (added on as hardness) resistances and immunities, the reasoning behind why a character does not receive the full benefit is simple. It is not just a creature's skin that makes it resist to its elements and even the best made armour requires joints and openings for the wearer for moment and simply to put it on.
No plate or leather armour has ever been waterproof so while a splash of acid may harmlessly dribble down a black dragon hide breastplate, a knight being struck by a considerable amount would still suffer damage as acid seeps in through the cracks and joints of his armour.

One special mention is spell resistance (SR) rather than granting the wearer SR it simply affects the armour, alternatively it may be treated as the armour as having the spell resistance armour enchantment appropriate to the creatures SR without the Strong abjuration visible by detect magic.

D&D SRD
Spell Resistance: This property grants the armor’s wearer spell resistance while the armor is worn. The spell resistance can be 13, 15, 17, or 19, depending on the armor.
Strong abjuration; CL 15th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, spell resistance; Price +2 bonus (SR 13), +3 bonus (SR 15), +4 bonus (SR 17), or +5 bonus (SR 19).

The reasoning behind this is that it limits the enchantments that can be placed upon the armour as well as increasing the cost, in addition any attempts to enchant the armour would have to overcome the spell resistance.
In the rare cases of spell immunity the armour could not be enchanted at all and bring all the benefits and drawbacks of been immune to magic to the wearer.
It should be noted unlike most creatures with spell resistance the wearer of spell resistant or spell immune armour would not be able lower their resistance willingly and in an emergency may have to be stripped of their armour for healing spells to work on them.

Other things to consider?

A creatures extraordinary abilities have to be handled on case by case basis but a general ruling can be be taken as armour or equipment crafted of the creature reduces the cost of applying suitable related enchantments by 25%. For example:

The iconic Dungeons and Dragons displacer beast is famed for its displacement ability which makes it appear to 5 foot away from where it really is.
Creating a displacer beast hide cloak does not give the wearer the natural displacement ability of the displacer beast but it could be used to create a cloak of displacement (minor or major) at a reduced 25% cost ( 12,000 gp down to 9000gp and 25,000 gp to 18480gp respectively)

A possible suggestion to scale this would be to require higher CR monsters for more powerful magic items, continuing with the example above creating a cloak of displacement (major) with a reduced 25% cost would require the hide of the more powerful and rare displacer beast pack lord.

Here is the big question and arguably the most difficult: Cost.
Simply put I can't answer this, it really depends on how rare your creatures are and the demand. Sure wearing troll skin leather is effective but does it look and smell bad?
I will suggest that the cost for masterwork items is doubled, and that the armour for unusual creatures table from the SRD is used to determined the extra cost by using the nonhumaniod section of the table.

Armor For Unusual Creatures D&D SRD
Armor and Shields. Refer to the appropriate line on the table below and apply the multipliers to cost and weight for the armor type in question.
Size                        Nonhumanoid
Cost                       Cost     Weight
Tiny or smaller         ×1        ×1/10
Small                       ×2        ×½
Medium                   ×2        ×1
Large                       ×4        ×2
Huge                        ×8        ×5
Gargantuan               ×16      ×8
Colossal                   ×32      ×12

The craft DCs should not be changed from 10 + AC bonus as the increased AC does this automatically and the additional costs represent the extra time and equipment needed.

Finally these rules are not set in stone and are simply suggestions, don't be afraid to say no if you suspect something will unbalance your game or doesn't fit in. Perhaps not all creatures are suitable for crafting, perhaps it requires unique equipment only a certain faction has access to, its your world, your rules.
Now that the hide has been covered the next article looks at the spell reagent’s and material components.

Quick Link: Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

“So about that gold Sandell.” The young wizard grinned teasingly at the dwarf toying with the cleaned silks between her fingers the faint scent of Jasmine drifting in the air, looking still somewhat sceptical Sandell shrugged “Well that’s one roll just another nineteen to go… and the fabrics still stretched and torn.. Think you can handle that?”
Leaving the pair to discuss Duncan knelt amongst the bodies of the worgs running his fingers over the blood stained fur of one of the creatures that was still passing trying to calm its last moments, his eyes drifting to the world outside the forest leaves showing hints of red now as thoughts of the future drifted through his mind. “Winters coming..”

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This is just a reminder for all you Cogboys and gals out there the fifth annual Asylum festival in Lincoln is coming up soon.

For you unfamiliar with the event The Asylum is the UK's (and possibly the worlds) largest Steampunk of the year, it is run by the VVS (Victorian Steampunk Society) who are a voluntary not-for-profit organisation and contains many events such as art exhibitions, talk panels ranging from the educational to the outright hilarious (I highly recommend Jack Unions monster hunting), competitions, parades and many stalls.

People are welcome to attend in costume or without as everyone is welcome, I've been every year and I've never had a problem walking around Lincoln's town centre while in costume apart from the occasional curious question.

If your still curious a video of some of last years events available on youtube here and this years Asylum festival website is here.

I hope to see you there.

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