Do you go to the dungeon?

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Making torches

(only in the game! don't burn yourself IRL kids!)

Only torchmaker's can make torches. No-one else can even try.

Alchemists, rangers, scouts, outlanders and outriders are all torchmakers.

Other people get to make one DC 20 Wisdom check (not one per day – one total!) to see if they are torchmakers.

If they fail they have to learn how to become a torchmaker.

Picking up the nuances of torchmaking takes ten two-hour lessons from an alchemist, ranger or scout. (The other types of torchmakers can't teach all the nuances of torchmaking because they are relying on their own wisdom to fix problems on the fly, rather than knowledge of everything that could go wrong. Remember that the student is someone who as already failed the wisdom check or else they wouldn't be a student.)

It takes two minutes per torch if you had the stuff.

You need three things:

The Stick

Finding the stick is trivial if there are trees. They don't have to be that dry.

Pine trees, due to their sap, don't need the wick or the burnination stabilizer if they are split the right way so the sap can be drawn up by the flame.

The Wick

A piece of rope, some string, cloth rags (torn clothes?). You can't really forage for that using the forage rules but you might find some in the game. (like from an enemy's shirt or w/e).

If you're only living off nature and relying on the forage rules, you can wrap bark around the end and stuff it with grass, tiny pieces of wood, moss etc, or a cat tail (not a real cat's tail, the plant named cat tail, "kaveldun" in Swedish). You can forage for material for [1d6+wis]×10 torch wicks instead of foraging for food in a day. It's hard to find a place where this stuff is available but when you have found it, there is usually a lot. Each batch of wick materials is a small item though. Using this kind of crude wick material adds 5 minutes per torch.

The Burnination Stabilizer

You can use either of these:

  • One hour's worth of lamp oil or even food oil.
  • Three day's worth of melted insect salve (or un-salvified ingredients, that works even better). You need some way to melt it (campfire + messkit). Adds 5 minutes per torch for a total of 7 minutes per torch.
  • A dead animal (fat). Adds 30 minutes base + 3 per torch, so one torch 35 minutes, two torches 40 minutes etc.

Do not use pitch or tar as a burnination stabilizer if you're gonna take it in dungeons. It becomes super smoky.
Works OK for outdoor use. List these torches as "pitch torch" if you make them. But I haven't bothered to make rules for foraging for pitch or tar; this is just in case some module has a big tar pit or whatever.

Dropping Torches

If you drop a torch you need make a DC 10 Wis save. If you fail it goes out, if you succeed it stays lit. If you drop it in water it just goes out.