[OOC] Surwall - South of the Wall

[Gargleblaster]

So ... if the plantations along the Yar are worked by slaves, would Hobgoblins (or Goblins?) be appropriate or are non-humans kept separate in their own little areas?

[VPA_Shadow00]

With Yar's proximity to the north of the desert and the foothills of the mountains, hobgoblins would be a part of their lives.

It would not be farfetched for Yar to rely on a large population of human and hobgoblin slaves.

[Gargleblaster]

I've always taken Knowledge(Local) to be the skill of getting around and finding things in a city, a sort of 'Streetwise' (to use a GURPS term) as an urban counterpart of Survival....?

[VPA_Shadow00]

Knowledge (Local) is actually one of the most versatile knowledge skills. It is not intrinsically tied to urban settings, it just refers to a characters penchant of learning about the people and culture around them.

Knowledge (Local) is used in the Pathfinder text to learn 'monster lore' about humanoid monsters (Hobgoblins, Orcs et cetera)

It can also be used to to know the local laws and customs. Or know about nearby settlements.

Knowledge (History and Geography) just gain the benefit of having lower dc's as they are more specialized skills than Knowledge (Local).

[Gargleblaster]

The idea of using Knowledge(Local) for 'monster lore' always seems odd to me. To be honest, in my campaign if the characters run into a gang Knowledge(Local) would be the skill that would let them know which organisation they are working for and how that organisation fitted into the city ... or where in the city to find an honest merchant, or where to go to buy a magic sword, or a vial of poison ....

But I think based on the actual rules your interpretation is absolutely right and seems like I've been House ruling it all this time (and feel free to convert my untrained Survival check of 17 into a trained Know(Local) check of 21 if you feel like it :-P)

[Thamewolf]

Oh, I always thought Knowledge (Local) was just knowledge of the character's home turf, didn't realize it applied while traveling so I never saw much sense in taking it (not that this character had enough skill points for it, but just in general)

[Aitrus]

Instead of "Great Forest" try "The Darklands", "Goblin Wood", "Orc Ranges", "Great Interior" or "Wildlands".

[VPA_Shadow00]

I like Wildlands. Go with it.

I am sick to death with congestion, sniffles, cough, and headache. Shoot me in the head.

[Gargleblaster]

In Bal Yar it's known as 'The Northwild'. Of course, everything up North is wild and uncouth anyway, so it's a bit of a tautology.

Going to convert Caityl's free bonus language from Orc to Goblin (based on the local humanoids being Hobgoblins) if that's OK?

[VPA_Shadow00]

That's just fine, makes sense too.

[Aitrus]

A bit of interjection (being from Alaska and all...). Sorry if all this sounds like I'm being condescending. It's not meant to be. Let's just say that my life experience and training would give me a lot of ranks in Survival.

Harvesting game in a manner that properly keeps all meat and edible organs takes time, about 45 min for a horse-sized creature freshly slaughtered, and resulting in about 200-250 lbs of meat, add in 15-25 min if you want to include deboning. A quick, expedient harvest can still yield lots of meat in under a couple of minutes. After the kill, in a dozen knife strokes you can have an entire leg and thigh severed. Depending on the size of the game, the leg can range from a pound (rabbit) to more than 100 pounds (moose). For an average sized horse, the yeild would be about 40-60 pounds per hind leg depending on species.

In this situation, severing a leg won't take much time, is easy to transport, and yeilds lots of meat. It would take 1d4+3 days for untreated meat to spoil in 40F weather beyond the point of safe consumption. Anything below 40F and the meat would last a few days longer, anything above 70 and I wouldn't trust it beyond a day or two. Meat rots from the outside inward, so anything bad on the outside would be cut off and the inner meat would still be good.

The meat could be preseved overnight using a field-expedient smoker made of canvas or like material, in either a cold or hot smoke setup (including flavoring), or set out to sun dry in a warm (90+F) and dry environment. We could also just char the entire piece (after skinning), and the charred outside would protect the inside, and we would cut off and re-cook anything we cut later. If we had more time and enough lard, we could make pemmican. Or we could simply rub it in salt and wrap in canvas or hide.

In 40 degree weather, a cold smoke would keep the meat for 4 weeks, a hot smoke 7 to 10 weeks, and charring would keep for 2 weeks. Pemmican can last an entire season in any heat because it would be stored in underground "refrigerators" we would dig. Rubbing in salt would last for a week or two. For untreated meat, the fresher the meat the more likely we would roast it. The older it got, the more stews we would make because stews are the universal way to prepare meat that isn't fresh, but not yet spoiled to the point of unsafe.

[VPA_Shadow00]

I'll trust your judgement, just keep in mind that your characters will have to carry whatever you decide to harvest, fortunately you have a horse that can bear some weight.

But... I can't promise your characters' safety. You are in a dangerous pass... orcs and wild animals and all that jazz.

[VPA_Shadow00]

My commendations to Gargleblaster, for turning a droll bit of information into something interesting.

[Thamewolf]

Second those commendations, great roleplaying Gargleblaster!

As for what we do with the horse, I propose we do the quick harvest to get the hind legs (or at least one hind leg) that Aitrus mentions. Suppose it would be cruel to saddle the current horse with its companions legs... hmm... we'll just have to wrap them so we can drop them easily to engage in combat.

I suppose that's a survival check to get the meat?

[Thamewolf]

Originally Posted by Gargleblaster

OOC: Caityl will defer to the more experienced woodspeople / survivalists in the group if they disagree and want to strike camp. Either way, she (and I) want to reach a decision :-P!

-

I'm all for trying to find a place, but I'm waiting for clarification about what we need to roll and precisely what time of day it is when we are done getting meat. I know initially it was going to take a lot of time, but that was before Aitrus (with a truly awesome bit of real-life survival knowledge) interjected. It seems we could have the legs of the horse fairly quickly.