D&D 5E Running Rime of the Frost Maiden

[MarkB]

The

Spoiler: Buffet

Chapter 2 Distress Signal at the end has a bulette. It can wander to ten-town is not killed. Chapter 4 The dragon eats half the population of each town

Just say various monsters can be triggered by events and they all wander into Ten-Towns.

That just sounds like ensuring continued employment for the wily adventuring party.

 

[MarkB]

So, my group left off last week in the final encounter of Foaming Mugs, having taken out enough goblins that the rest want to negotiate. But they're not looking to take surrenders, and they're eyeing that polar bear wagon avidly. If they play it right, they stand a good chance of taking it intact.

So, how much would it cost to keep two polar bears fed in these desperate times? I'm guessing they'll be getting a nice meal of fresh goblin to start off with, but beyond that, I'm thinking maybe the equivalent of one knucklehead trout per bear per day? What would that set the party back?

 

[Scott Christian]

So, my group left off last week in the final encounter of Foaming Mugs, having taken out enough goblins that the rest want to negotiate. But they're not looking to take surrenders, and they're eyeing that polar bear wagon avidly. If they play it right, they stand a good chance of taking it intact.

So, how much would it cost to keep two polar bears fed in these desperate times? I'm guessing they'll be getting a nice meal of fresh goblin to start off with, but beyond that, I'm thinking maybe the equivalent of one knucklehead trout per bear per day? What would that set the party back?

Seems about right. As for cost, who are they buying it from. Might be easier to pay a fisher a daily wage, especially if this is going to be long term.

 

[MarkB]

Seems about right. As for cost, who are they buying it from. Might be easier to pay a fisher a daily wage, especially if this is going to be long term.

That sounds sensible. Fishing boats cost 2gp per day to hire and can seat up to four people, probably no more than three if leaving room for the catch, so to do better than break even an individual fisher would probably need to earn at least 1gp per day. That seems like a reasonable rate, and easy to keep track of.

 

[jasper]

So, my group left off last week in the final encounter of Foaming Mugs, having taken out enough goblins that the rest want to negotiate. But they're not looking to take surrenders, and they're eyeing that polar bear wagon avidly. If they play it right, they stand a good chance of taking it intact.

So, how much would it cost to keep two polar bears fed in these desperate times? I'm guessing they'll be getting a nice meal of fresh goblin to start off with, but beyond that, I'm thinking maybe the equivalent of one knucklehead trout per bear per day? What would that set the party back?

Nice DM just charge them 2X the Cost of Feed per day. Evil DM. Well I charge for that.

 

[MarkB]

Nice DM just charge them 2X the Cost of Feed per day. Evil DM. Well I charge for that.

I could just charge the cost of regular animal feed, but I figure polar bears will get through more than that. Combine that with any food being hard to come by, and the value of having two polar bears available as allies if they can get them trained, and it's probably still worth it.

 

[Reynard]

Polar bears require about 2kg of fat per day, more if they are active (like pulling a sled). The knucklehead trout probably doesn't have a lot of fat to it. Are there seals or similar fatty water mammals in the lakes?

 

[MarkB]

Trout meat seems to have around 8% fat, less than a quarter that of seals. So at worst, they'll just have to eat a lot of them.

 

[Scott Christian]

I figured these knuckleheads trout are like salmon, kind of fatty. They should be very well fed if they need to be trained.

 

[MarkB]

I figured these knuckleheads trout are like salmon, kind of fatty. They should be very well fed if they need to be trained.

They're big, aside from anything else, averaging 60 lbs fully grown. Even if less than half of that is edible meat, and assuming that they have the same fat percentage as regular trout, they're still delivering around 2 lbs of fat per trout, call it roughly 1 kg. So two trout per day will deliver a polar bear's calorie requirements.

Anyway, I suspect they'll get plenty of chances to supplement that diet via whatever (or whoever) the PCs kill in the course of their adventures.