Quick Game Log: Stealing a wizards armoured staff car

Happened to have a few players free so we did a jaunt where 5th lv The Man With no name, his rat woman sidekick Lv3 and the dog abhuman Arj, now learning druidry abhuman4/druid1. They are looking for things to improve their outpost and considered trying to make a lap around the spire. Went to the alchemy guild town Quicksilver Heights noting the road has improved from use. Arj spent most of the adventure as a rat so the party is more sneaky. All 3 had stealth skills and planned to travel light.

The town had grown a bit and demihuman traders from the west were seen. An unusual sight. Looked at markets for prices and chatted with the deep gnome merchant who explained the black sphere were heretics and he followed the way of the golden cube. This theory claimed the goal was to turn everything in the universe into an ultra-dense gold solid the cult would somehow control from another dimension. Some kind of LN profit cult.

Found a notice board. Wanted posters from all the great coastal kingdoms for various criminals hiding in the waste with big rewards. One note offered bacon for fighting a mechanical beast. A shifty fellow offered 30gp if they delivered fancy wax-sealed hams to a ruin at dusk. The party thought this was odd and accepted the Hams. The guildmaster invited them to dinner and the party said possibly busy. They decided to visit the ham delivery point four hours early.

Found ruins on the edge of a 4km rubbish heap and saw trash fall from portals (stolen from an adventure I forgot the name of sorry). Met some halflings in trash spying on them and they were paid to watch for adventurers scouting trash heaps. With some intimidation and ignoring halflings filed pointy teeth they were guided to a shack. Arj turned into a rat and spied on the shack to see two men dressed as scavengers but blank white faces shoving food into their mouthless faces. They seemed a bit like Balzac the flesh golem back home (currently hunting mimics in Party Fort). So the rat got on the roof and turned back to a 7-foot-tall dogman. Th nameless man and his rat lady opened the door and threw in a smoke bomb and a grenade. Both staggered out one had become humid and lucid, other was choking and on fire. The nameless man backstabbed the burning one and the rat and dog abhumans finished the now human one. Both died with bloodless corpses leaking with viscous slime. Not doppelgangers but they decided to tell people they were. They found more hams that they gave to halflings who were happy to take over the trash heap as bosses. The hams were suspicious and it seems there was a scam to get human flesh hams and dead adventurers to feed to ghouls in the trash heaps to tame them. 

So back to town still an hour before they were meant to meet with hams in ruins and the guy who was talking to young adventurers told the party they better move on for the delivery and the party chased him and town guards came and the criminal was publicly exposed and denounced. The guild master ordered the criminal executed and the body burned. Head went somewhere. Went on to eat and drink with the guild master and the man with no name was declared no longer a journeyman member and offered prestigious work. Also offered drugs mostly not legal in most coastal lands from the mysterious western continent. Heard of a town linked to the guild to the north were gunpowder ingredients all local and mined. Also another town Tasacon where people sell mysterious meat, blood potions and other potions. Rumours say more barbarians and orcs coming from SW and the remains of the Empire planning a Crusade from east. Elves and druids from east trying reforestation again.

Were even given 30gp from the criminal's assets seized to pay them for the work he promised. 

In morning went to the farm offering own weight in bacon and 30sp to find the mechanical beast. Followed its footprints to a bunker and entered. The automaton hound attacked. Arj cast faerie fire on it to make it stand out and a bunch of zombies became visible getting up from the garbage-strewn floor. Dog was a pain and zombies managed to weaken party to half HP.

Downstairs found buried engines and a sealed trapped door. Inside was a bomb triggered by door and drums of fuel. While looking about someone rolled in a grenade with a fuse. Arj saw first and charged where it came form and he ran through an illusionary concrete wall and attacked a slovenly obese pimply wizard. The rest joined on and the rat lady was hit by a sleep spell. The wizard lasted a few more moments and was killed.

Found his spellbook, some books, some items and a treasure map of a buried site his zombies were digging up. His journal was full of Complaints and imaginary diseases. There was 12 tons of dirt in way but dug a small channel to a roller metal door and cut a hole. Arj turned into a rat and found a wonderous horseless chariot of the ancients in workable condition. Hired some scavengers to help clear the rubble, fixed the car and drove back home in luxury.

It was a streamlined armoured VIP car with slits in metal plate instead of windows. 

A proper session next week but lots of good information and I now need to write up a bunch of hexes.

Alchemy Formula 2 Black Powder & Incendiary

Part 1

https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2024/11/alchemy-formula-1-poison.html

fictional tabletop fantasy game use only

Black Powder Lore

Tier 0 = Lv Zero
1 Quickload - preload rounds and powder in wax paper wads, and tricks to half speed loading time of black powder weapons
2 Fire Crackers - make small noisy firecrackers, may scare animals 

3 Fuse - make a basic fuse you can light to delay a blast up to a round

4 Black Powder - make enough powder for one shot

Tier 1 = Lv1-4
1 Delay Fuse - make longer slower fuses that can burn for hours or can be longer 

2 Door Charge - to blow open wooden doors or locks by placing them on the door  

3 Smoke Bomb - create a smoke pot that generates smoke with a lit fuse   

4 Grenaide - make a simple bomb with a fuse you can throw
Tier 2 = Lv5-8
1 Fire Lance - make a shot or ball type of fire lance, which might be loaded on carts with hundreds
2 Rocket Arrow - make an arrow type of fire lance, that might be loaded on carts with hundreds
3 Overcharge - +1 gun damage per dice on 1 to hit gun explodes injuring user
4 Impact Fuse - exploded if thrown, dropped or stepped on, used for traps, can set so safe to transport before arming
Tier 3 = Lv9-12
1 Land Mine - 2 ENC clay pot landmine with hot coal trigger requiring change daily or use impact fuse
2 Sea Mine - 10 ENC clay floating mine with hot coal trigger requiring change daily or use impact fuse
3 Improved Charge - +1 damage per dice on bombs 
4 Improved Blast - +1/3 area of explosions or smoke bombs or blunderbus
Tier 4 = Lv13-16
1 Seige Mine - make a 30 ENC wall breaching charge you place directly 
2 Rocket Artillery - 2m long rocket can deliver grenades or smoke bombs or other device
3 Smokeless Powder - cleaner burning powder without clouds of smoke
4 Explosive Shell - modify artillery cannonballs into a spherical shell holding explosives, fragments, balls or other contents like liquid metal or incendiaries. Not for handheld firearms
Tier 5 = Lv17-20
1 Rocket Engine - make dangerous briefly fast vehicles, winged missiles to deliver siege mines or other weapons, and even flying machines or other dangerous experiments. Will require other skills to use well
2 Storm Rocket - can make weather-changing rockets by shooting sky. Make rain, fog or break a storm with a 2m rocket over the local area hex
3 Improved Powder - new methods to make main ingredients on an industrial scale reducing prices 50% of gunpowder but takes a year using putrefaction and other slow refining processes that make better powder so guns last longer
4 Waterproof Powder - firearms reliable if wet, rain or other humidity 

Incendiary Lore

Tier 0 = Lv Zero
1 Match - make an easy to ignite use stick 
2 Fuel - refine and distil oil from animal, plants or mineral sources

3 Fuse - make a basic fuse you can light to delay a blast up to a round

4 Torch - make a reliable burning torch with a stick and resin (can premake resin)
Tier 1 = Lv1-4
1 Delay Fuse - make longer slower fuses that can burn for hours or can be longer 
2 Smoke Bomb - create a smoke pot that generates smoke with a lit fuse, expands 3 range area per round, egg size one round (5 per ENC), 1 ENC grenade size d4 rounds or a 4 ENC pot burns for 10 minutes       

3 Fire Arrow - +1 damage in ignited and may start a fire
4 Incendiary Bomb - bottle or urn with fuel and a fuse you can throw
Tier 2 = Lv5-8
1 Impact Fuse - exploded if thrown, dropped or stepped on, used for traps, can be set so safe to transport before arming 

2 Fire Lance - can make a fire-type fire lance that can fire a 30 degree cone of fire 1 range
3 Smoke Formula - make fire weapons make more smoke fire arrows and incendiaries produce more choking smoke for a d4 rounds, arrows expand 1 area per round, incendiary expand 3 area per round 
4 Improved Fuel - improves the damage and burning effect of fire weapons. Fire arrows burn a d3 rounds for 1 HP per round after initial damage, Incendiaries +d4 and if on fire d4 per round, mines and most others by +1 per dice

Tier 3 = Lv9-12
1 Fire Caster - make a pressurised piston fire-throwing weapon for siege or ship battle 
2 Fire Mine - a flaming bomb suitable for a catapult or a set charge  
3 Oxidant - has own air supply in chemicals so water and smothering with water or other means won't snuff fire, will float on water while burning, more difficult to extinguish or perform first aid
4 Poisonous Smoke - added to smoking weapons save each round per round or lose d3 HP
Tier 4 = Lv13-16
1 Fire Retardant - make a potion to make items like clothes not flammable +2 save -1 damage per dice, last one application, 2d4 damage on beings made of fire and repulsive to them
2 Fire Mask - improvise a cloth, urine and charcoal filter mask for +2 save vs smoke or gas vs one attack or make a more permanent 4 ENC sealed mask with goggles that lasts 100gp 

3 Blade Fire - make a weapon cause +d3 fire damage for a d4 rounds per application once lighted
4 Slow Fuel - burns longer +d4 rounds duration of any fire weapon, torches and lamps duration doubles  
Tier 5 = Lv17-20
1 Fire Cloak - make a cloak or suit of salamander skin or asbestos cloth +2 save -1 damage per dice, +2 AC vs fire attacks, it can also be applied to a shield or armour or made into a paint to cover a 3x3m area

2 Blinding Smoke - smoke causes sighted creatures to save or blinded for as long as in smoke and 2d4 rounds after if they fail a save
3 Cluster Incendiary - a fire mine variant that breaks up into many smaller incendiaries in flight over a larger area than a fire mine 

4  Elemental Fuel - make a lamp or torch last a year, four for a larger fire or stove. Heals fire creatures 2d4 damage and delicious

Normally a fire weapon can ignite a person who fails a saving throw for 1HP per round for a d4 rounds. The defender spends an action for an agility save by rolling or beating or dousing the fire to put it out. Certain formula add to duration and increase damage

A fire lance is a one use tube on a stick - a crude early firearm
Later ones were re-usable and became hand guns 
The stick keeps the unskilled users from fumbling on a roll of 1
there are several main types - ball, shot, arrow and fire
some attach one to a spear or polarm shaft perhaps several
or a cart with many strapped on from a pushcart in a dungeon or a ox cart for hundreds

A player now enters battle with a long delay fuse in teeth to light stuff in a battle

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template 

more formula than these I just need at least this many to make it work
there will be a herbalist, apothecary and acid list 

X Lore

Tier 0 = Lv Zero
1
2

3

4
Tier 1 = Lv1-4
1  
2   
3 
4 
Tier 2 = Lv5-8
1  
2 
3  
4  
Tier 3 = Lv9-12
1  
2  
3 
4  
Tier 4 = Lv13-16
1  
2 
3  
4   
Tier 5 = Lv17-20
1  
2 
3  
4