Chill Bark Wood
Description
Found deep in the woods and harvested by unknow means know only to the Bone Cold Harvesters, kept secret even from the villagers in the town this rare material can be used to craft wooden accent or parts and giving them either additional cold damage or resistance. As this wood is harvested and taken to market the crates are always covered in the distinctive layer of frost from the deep cold coming from the wooden contents inside, and ensuring the sellers always wear safety measures when transporting large quantities.
Village harvesting and Handling of Chill Bark
Harvesting and growing of Chill Bark has always been a deeply kept secret known only to the guild members of the Bone Cold Harvesters, as it is one that would put the normal villagers in a rage. As the dead of the village are brought to the cemetery and laid to rest under the towns watchful villagers, and after they have been laid to rest the cemetery is then locked with only those of the guild left inside its walls. Forming a circle around the laid to rest body each of the guild members begins to chant and pull the remaining life essence from the body and channeling it into the trees and earth of the surrounding cemetery. The trees begin to pull the remaining essence into their long gnarled branches as the veins of icy blue faintly glow with the power of the trapped soul. Empowering the trees and slowly filling them with life it allows the guild members to harvest the older branches of the trees while letting the newly sprouted limbs to flourish and grow thanks to the offering of the souls. While feeding the souls is often considered the easy part of the job the real difficult part is dealing with the harvesting of the wood and the limbs as they chop into the trunks. With each axe swing the guild members fight back the chilling cold of the trees as they try to leech the heat and vitality of the harvesters. After finally fighting the trees influence and making sure to heal and deal with any frostbite that may have hurt members they then unlock the gates and bring the next batch of wood to be packed up and taken to market.
Player harvesting of Chill Bark
When a player decides to harvest chill bark they will have to make three rounds of either Strength or Constitution checks against the tree as it begins to fight back and creates a ring of cold around itself in defense. With each successful hit of the axe or weapon they will have you beat a rising challenge of 4, 6, and then finally a 10 to resist the cold and finish harvesting the wood without taking damage. With a failed check the number will rise by one as the player takes 1d4 cold damage on a fail, and after three fails they are unable to finish unless another player takes up their place and continues where they left off. After the harvesting of the wood and the rolls to see how many materials are harvested it then begins the encounter with the Sap Demon and Living Wick 's as they begin to fight back and deal with the damage the players have done.
The main Chill Bark tree in the center of the cemetery with the funeral altar at its base
Crafting Bonus and usage
When either bought or harvested by the adventuring party they can seek out an arcane carpenter and begin to craft a weapon or embellishment with their newly acquired Chill Bark wood. When used to create an offensive weapon the ice like nature of the chilled wood leads that cold power to the attacks, as it adds 1d4 cold damage to all attacks while using the weapon. But when used for defensive purposes it imbues the wielder with the same chilling energy and allows them to resist 1d4 cold damage along with helping them negate any cold weather conditions until the temperature drops into the negatives. It can take two to three pieces of wood for each weapon or defensive purpose, which can be acquired by harvesting and rolling 1d6 to determine how many pieces of material are harvested.
