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Chapter 8: Skills
Tanning
Tanning leather takes at least 40-50 days, depending
on the product and the hide. Leather is
the result of modification of an animal hide, and it
is strong, flexible, and resists decay. Most leather is
from cattle hides, calfskins, goatskins, kidskins,
sheepskins, and lambskins, though the hides of many
monsters yield quality leather as well. Depending
on how the tanning is done, leather can be as soft as
cloth or as hard as the sole of a shoe.
Promptly after removing the hide from the
animal, it is cured. To cure the hide, salt is applied
generously to it and it is stored for 30 days in a place
that has no moisture. After 30 days, the salted hide
is thoroughly dry. Next, the cured skins are soaked
in pure water for 2-7 hours to eliminate salt, blood,
and dirt, and to replace a small amount of moisture.
After a good washing, the remaining flesh is thoroughly
removed. Next, the hide is soaked in a solution
of lime and water for 9 days. The skin is now
treated with a weak solution of acid. Finally, the
skins are treated with a mixture of salt and acid and
dried under conditions that control for heat and
humidity.
Curing hides creates a pungent atmosphere.
Tanners, both masters and apprentices, may be seen
outdoors, scraping away hair and epidermis from
the skins over a beam with a blunt-edged concave
tool. The flesh adhering to the underside is scraped
off with a sharp concave blade. Next the hide is
softened by rubbing it with cold poultry, pigeon
dung, or warm dog dung, then soaked in mildly acidic
liquid produced by fermenting bran, to wash off
the traces of lime left by the dung. The whole process
of tanning takes months, usually over a year.
LC: The LC is 13 for the first solo attempt
at tanning, and improves by 2 with each successful
tanning of a hide.
Check: Roll 3d10 and apply the modifier
from the Common Sense sub-ability. Consider the
roll to be the quality of the finished product. The
table below assumes that the hides used will be common,
not exotic. Exotic hides may be easier or
harder to work with.
TH Result
14Successfultanning 386
Taste
Taste is a sense and different than most skills.
Each character must roll 3d10 to determine the quality
of their taste and record this as SP invested. A
character may invest no more than 1d10 SP into
this skill. If a character needs to assess the sensitivity
of this sense at the moment, then they must make
a Taste skill check.
Check: Roll 3d10 and apply the modifier
from above. Compare this result with the TH on
the table below to understand the sensitivity of the
character’s Taste at the moment:
TH Example
Can
distinguish
warm
urine
from
cold
< 25
water
Can
distinguish
sweet
from
sour,
and
bitter
25
from
salty
Can
distinguish
between
cow
and
goat
33-39
milk
40-45Canidentifybetweenfinewines Can
identify
any
oral
substance
as
long
as
they
have
tasted
it
before,
no
matter
how
> 45
minute
the
difference
, or
the
difference
itself
is
noticed
and
may
be
described
in
as
much
detail
as
possible.