Custoad’s Chapter One: Pigments and Color

The natural world is one of color. And it is through that lens that bring you my brushstroke guide to the Tense River Basin. Through this text we will explore the different regions of the basin from personal accounts and research. The power of color in the river basin cannot be overstated, so before you begin your own painting journey you will need to prepare yourself with a variety of dyes and pigments. But a beginner may start with five. Red, Yellow, Blue, White, and Black.

Introduction to Pigments

Each can be distilled by any painter from an appropriate source. The first a new painter will likely pursue is White pigment. It can be found in the water lilies in the elemental spring waters that feed the lake in Carcassonne . The lily pads are more buoyant than they seem. But one must balance carefully. The water here is swift and if you fall in you may find yourself swept away. Remember that the best pigment can be collected from the pure white petals of the oldest and most mature pads. The more aging and oranging the better the bounty!

by Jacques Custoad

‘Ssonne Lilly Pigment

Artisan Tool

Common Elemental Water

The petals of the Carcassonne Lilly contain a vibrant and bright white pigment. It comes from growing in the waters fed by a rift in to a plane of water. The water is so pure and crisp that the flowers shine brighter than any other. One pound of flowers can be worked with a mortar and pestle over the course of 4 hours to a dry powder that can be used in a variety of paints. However, it takes best to watercolors.

One pound of flowers makes enough white pigment for 25 paintings.

A skilled painter can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When making the check for painting a picture that includes water you can attempt a DC 21 Painter’s Tools check with Intelligence. On a success the water seems to slowly move within the painting. Waves or ripples on the water animate.

Cost: 35 gp
Weight: 1 ounce

At the bare minimum the next thing you’ll need is an appropriate black pigment. I find that the best pigment for the blackest black is cut with obsidian dust. Now, there are two ways to go about getting obsidian dust. Far to the deepest reaches of the Twistenwud the swamp backs up against the mountain range. There lies a source of obsidian in now overrun mines. But, more conveniently I have found that Bozzam’s Bazaar in Provenance has a steady supply of the stuff. Just tell him Jaques sent you.

Fortchman’s Obsidian Pigment

Artisan Tool

Common

The weapons of the Fortchmen who call the Twistenwud home are noted for being obsidian. They must have control of the old obsidian mine. But Bozzam is always eager to pay a bounty for such weapons and works them to his own ends. With each obsidian weapon he is brought he can produce an ounce of obsidian dust.

One ounce of obsidian dust creates enough pigment for up to 25 paintings.

A skilled painter can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When making the check for painting a picture that includes shadow you can attempt a DC 21 Painter’s Tools check with Strength. On a success the painting absorbs light, causing bright light within 5’ to become dim light.

Cost: Just bring Bozzam an obsidian weapon
Weight: 1 ounce

Now you are ready to paint! With just light and shadow there is much to be learned and explored among the creatures of the tense river basin! I suggest finding yourself in the plains where you can sometimes see the Tuxedo Meerkats on the move. They like to stand and search, keeping an eye out. But their fur gives them the appearance of wearing a tiny white bow tie on a sleek black furred body. They seem quite fancy by the way they stand. For any serious student of the craft of painting, you’ll want to make at least five paintings of wild tuxedo meerkats to learn how to use value and your black and white pigments to their best.

Colors: Not for the Faint of Heart

I must warn you friend, the best pigments do not come easy. Each of colors following, Red, Yellow, and Blue can be found as pigments in many everyday sources that will function just fine as a paint. Do not risk your life, get an ordinary painter’s kit and live a safe life. But if you seek to create enchanted paintings, then may your artworks be as fearless as you are!
Let me tell you about Stag's Cathedral the forest that stands to the southeast. It is some of the oldest growth in the entire Basin. Beware of course of both the bird fellows and the frog folk that live there. Last I saw they were at war, but rumors spread that after a tragic blimpeel attack they have come to an accord. Perhaps tread even more carefully. But high in the treetops of those mighty Redwoods there grows a mistletoe with red berries that are of the brightest caliber when they are in season. Something about them seems to swell with vibrancy beyond what I’ve seen in any other place. Understanding of course, that these trees can tower past three hundred feet in height. Ascent can be tricky, even deadly. And dangers such as Weregeckos and Dire Cannibalis Toads will keep you on your toes.

Cloudgrown Mistletoe Pigment

Artisan Tool

Uncommon

In the highest treetops of the cloud forest redwoods in Stag’s Cathedral mistletoe grows. Those berries, when in season are a vivacious and bursting red. If collected and distilled in alchohol over seven nights of moonlight it can be dried to make an ounce of pigment.

Three handful of mistletoe berries make enough red pigment for 25 paintings.

A skilled painter can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When making the check for painting a picture that includes red flowers of any sort you can attempt a DC 21 Painter’s Tools check with Wisdom. On a success the plant life and flowers bloom every morning.

Cost: 50 gp
Weight: 1 ounce

When it springtime you can journey to the forests north of Provenance. There you will find the famous hospitality of the Rabbitons and Harengons, if they can get along with one another long enough to show it. Of course, you should be wary of the undead that stalk these forests at night, certainly they are easier to hide from but they just seem to sneak up on you in the forests. But most importantly to you are the tiny aberrant kitten creatures called the Buzzpurr . You will need to set up a camp to go fishing for enough minnows to appeal to them and it could take many days to lure in enough pollen laden Buzzpurrs to make your pigment, but it is a rewarding task in of itself. They are quite adorable. Though something sits not right with me about them, they don’t fit into the ecology in any way I’ve known. They seem somehow invasive, but yet I can’t see any direct harm that has come of them yet.

Buzzpurr Pollen Pigment

Artisan Tool

Uncommon

Although they have been found in many places around the Basin, in the spring the Buzzpurr are particularly active in thumperleaf forest which lies to the north of Provenance. These tiny half kitten half bumblebees are particularly adept at collecting the finest of yellows in pollen. If they can be found laden with pollen they can be caught by offering very tiny fish and then played with to shake off all of the pollen.

It takes the danced off pollen from two dozen buzzpurrs to create enough yellow pigment for 25 paintings.

A skilled painter can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When making the check for painting a picture that includes sunbeams you can attempt a DC 23 Painter’s Tools check with Charisma. On a success the painting radiates warmth for 10ft.

Cost: 75 gp
Weight: 1 ounce

The final pigment you’ll need to fill out the primary colors is blue. Again, I must caution the idle hobbyist. It is not worth dying for your seascapes, just pick up some lapis pigment in Carcassonne and be done with it. But if you want the finest blue, then there are only two places to go. In the darkest dampest parts of the Twistenwud there grow mushrooms that the Twisten Sisters have called Shindershroom, they glow a soft lovely hue of blue. Shaking off the spores and working them with a mortar and pestle creates the most fantastic pigment with a most useful effect. The only other place I have seen them is deep underground. Few know that under Carcassonne lie catacombs that date back many centuries. Fewer still that below those catacombs there opens an immense cave system, none have yet found its end. it is there in the reaches of these Subplaces that I have seen the Shindershroom before. But such a journey is even more perilous than the Twistenwud.

Shindershroom Spore Pigment

Artisan Tool

Uncommon

Deep in the darkest parts of the Twistenwud and in the underground Subplaces beneath Carcassonne these Shindershroom mushrooms grow and give off a ghostly glow when thinking beings are nearby. At least, that is what thinking people think. Unthinking beings haven’t considered enough to report back. But when found and shaken the spores that drop are a deep and appealing blue. Although the glow leaves them when dried their color is vibrant as ever. Four mushrooms worth of spores will be required, handling each has a 30% chance of damaging it, but the others can be left de-spored but otherwise unharmed.

Four mushrooms of spores creates enough Blue pigment for 25 paintings.

A skilled painter can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When making the check for painting a picture that includes sunbeams you can attempt a DC 23 Painter’s Tools check with your choice of Int/Wis/Cha. On a success the painting holds a secret telepathic message. You may encode up to 25 words in a message that people hear in their head if within 10 ft of the painting and look at a specific point of interest determined by the painter.

A skilled calligrapher can bring out an additional quality of this pigment. When writing a missive, a second secret message can be telepathically encoded using the Shindershroom spore pigment. On a DC 20 Calligraphers or Forger’s Tools check you can include a double message of up to 25 words within your letter.

Cost: 250 gp
Weight: 1 ounce

Now that you are prepared with the basics you can paint near all the creatures of the Tense River Basin! Within the rest of this tome I’ll recount my experiences exploring the basin and the beasts I can encountered. I’ll inform you what I’ve learned about finding them, following them, and framing them for portraiture. Your next assignment is to create at least 20 portraits of the scary beasties you find around the basin, still life and even some post life portraits will work.
Custoad’s Chapter Two: Introduction to Landscapes and the Decrept