Smoke Powder

Dungeon Master's Guide

Smoke Powder

Explosive

Very Rare

Black, sulfurous smelling, and highly explosive, Smoke Powder is a little known and seldom used substance created by Nerrid engineers using a secret alchemical formula. Originally created by accident while a team of engineers sought to find permanent shoe polish, the explosive qualities of the substance have lead to three new industries in Nerridon.

A number of of Nerrrid miners quickly saw the potential for the application of smoke powder during the excavation of tunnels of and caves. They have created cylinders filled with smoke powder that includes long wick. Known as "boom-sticks ," one or more cylinder is placed in the mine shaft or tunnel, the wick lit, and the explosion causes even the most stubborn of walls to crumble. This mining technique has, incidentally, been banned in the Underground Kingdom of the Children of Kharl after the death of three Nerrid and a pair of Khadric engineers during a demonstration in New Kharolin.

Nerrid entertainers have also seen the potential smoke powder as an auxiliary prop in outdoor extravaganzas. By mixing small quantities of smoke power with other chemicals, many have learned how to create explosion so of varying size, color, and scent to augment story telling and theater. One enterprising bard even funneled the blast of these explosions to hurl them hundreds of paces into the air, showering the awed crowd in colorful sparks. These displays, known as fireworks, have been strictly outlawed in Gartcha after a small fire destroyed a small section - only three or four blocks - in the warehouse district.

Finally, at the request of two Eldorian Legionnaires, who had helped put out that same fire, several Nerrid engineers have collaborated to create long tubes that use a small burst of the explosive powder to hurl pebbles at him velocity at an enemy. After watching a test where these weapons - known as arki-blasts - eviscerated as a trio of goats that had wandered across the parade ground, General Andre de Champs ordered a hundred for the 12th Legion. Gartchan nobles, watching the Legionnaires practice, envisioned themselves wielding such weapons and have commissioned engineers to develop as similar weapon that could be wielded in one hand. Results to date are promising and the research has had the side benefit of accelerating research in a wide variety of styles in prosthetic hooks among the Nerrid.

Nerrid sell smoke powder in small horns, each weighing approximately three pounds and containing two pounds of the substance. This powder is enough to fire approximately 20 shots from an Arki-blast, to create two boom-stick, or fire two shots from Thunder Tube.

The powder is ruined if it gets wet. The powder is kept safe and dry in side a sheep's horn, the powered held inside by a tightly fitted leather cap. Should the powder ignite, the horn will explode, causing 4d6 4d6 points of fire damage to everyone within 10-feet. A successful DC 12 Dexterity saving throw halves the damage. Setting fire to an ounce of gunpowder causes it to flare for 1 round, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.

Cost: 50 gp (per horn)
Weight: 3 lb