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Fletching

The woodsman's answer to the fletcher's rack: forage a branch, sit down anywhere with a knife, and whittle your own ammunition. Fletched bundles are the same arrows and bolts the shops sell — your bow can't tell the difference, though a masterful bundle reads prouder.

The makings

  • An arrowwood branch — FORAGE ARROWWOOD BRANCH on forest or mountain ground, any season (deadfall doesn't mind winter; difficulty 30). Provisioners and Sela Ironmarrow sell them for 3 silver if the woods are far.
  • An edge in the other hand — any slashing or piercing weapon whittles; a knife or dagger bites truer (+5 to the roll).

No workshop, no fire, no station: fletching happens wherever you sit down.

The verb

FLETCH <branch>          arrows
FLETCH <branch> BOLTS    crossbow bolts

About 8 seconds of roundtime; the branch is committed the moment the knife starts.

fletch endroll = Fletching bonus + (DEX bonus ÷ 2) + (INT bonus ÷ 2) + tool bonus − wood difficulty + d100

The quality ladder

Endroll margin Result Shafts
≤ 0 splinters — kindling and regret 0
1–49 hand-fletched 4
50–99 finely fletched 6
100+ masterfully fletched 8

The bundle's worth pro-rates against the store bundle (a masterful eight is 6 silver of arrows from a 3-silver branch), and the name carries the quality — a bundle of masterfully fletched arrows.

The skill

Fletching is a cheap field skill (Fishing's shape) — TRAIN it at any inn. A bundle whittled true pays field experience (6 + difficulty ÷ 3); splinters teach nothing but humility.

The loop

  1. FORAGE ARROWWOOD BRANCH on the walk to the hunting ground.
  2. FLETCH BRANCH while your wounds knit at a node.
  3. READY your bow, FIRE what you whittled — spent arrows have a fair chance of surviving on the ground; GET them back.

See also