by Rajaad
Just what’s in there?
It’s a question every adventurer hears, at least a few times in their career, assuming that they live long enough to have a career, that is. And those people who don’t ask, well, you know they’re wondering.
I remember it as one of my hopeful childhood fantasies – stumbling across a lost backpack in the woods, and opening its various pouches and sections one by one, discovering treasure after treasure. Except that I could seldom visualize exactly what I’d find in there. Oh yes, I imagined the usual rope and grappling hook, maybe a hunting knife and a wineskin, but the rest remained mysterious, vague, and tantalizing to my mind.
Now, of course, I’m all grown up, and a professional adventurer as well. Lucky me! So it’s an easy thing to tell you exactly what really lies under those leather flaps. Remember, the key is to travel as light as possible, but still have equipment to deal with almost any situation.
Rope. Oh yes, it’s in there. And probably the good stuff, woven with at least some amount of silk. It’s said that there’s three hundred uses for a good length of rope, so I shaln’t begin listing them here, but any adventurer will keep a decent length of it along, as well as some thinner cordage.
A whetstone. You’re going to be using your knife and sword, and if they aren’t sharp enough to shave with, you’re going to regret it. Usually I’ll carry a leather pouch with three grades of stone, one for setting the blade, another to smooth it, and a fine-grained stone to polish to a razor’s edge.
A knife. Or more likely, two. One large enough to use as a backup weapon and axe, and a small one for fine carving.
Maps. These are essential if you don’t want to spend the rest of your days as a wandering hermit. If you get lost, which you probably will, you can use these to find large landmarks and reorient yourself toward civilization.
Food. Most adventurers supplement their supplies with fish, game, berries, and wild edibles, so a given backpack is likely to be filled with dry essentials. Rice, oatmeal, and barley expand with water and are nutritious as well. Dried meat and fruits add flavor and substance, and packets of spice and salt will keep you going on rough days. I also bring candy, including chocolate. It not only serves to pick up your spirits if circumstances have you down, but is invaluable if you run across any fae, who seem to adore the stuff.
Flasks. I’ve never met a wineskin that didn’t leak if it wasn’t treated like a fresh babe, so most adventurers stick to metal flasks. They weigh more, but tend to absorb a lot greater abuse and still hold their liquid. Most of these should hold water, but keep one filled with Kellicks. This can be used to intoxicate enemies or turn a small fire into a burst of flame to scare off night intruders.
Candles and a lantern. Light will be your best friend when you’re lonely, and candles can help you start a fire when a fire just doesn’t want to start. Lanterns come in many varieties, the simplest of which is a candle lantern, with a little spike for you to insert your candle on. It keeps a candle burning in the wind, but doesn’t shed much light. Oil lanterns are bright, but the oil is messy, and leaks can destroy other things in your pack.
Lots of socks. We lose a lot of heat through our head and our feet. Socks keep the feet warm, but they tend to get wet even in the best of conditions. If you have a few pairs, you can wash one each day and dry it by the fire at night.
A woolen cap. For the head part. Even sleeping in the summer I’ll wear one when camping outside.
A wool blanket. For sleeping. Your clothes and a good, thick wool blanket will usually keep you warm. Fires do the trick if it’s colder.
A scope. Yes, it’s heavy, but you’ll be happy you brought it when you’re scouting ruins from afar. Countless dangers can be avoided if you take the time to survey a situation before getting yourself directly involved.
Tinderbox. It’s best to always keep a fresh, dry supply of tinder. When it’s raining out and you’re trying to get a spark with shivering hands on flint and steel, you’ll be glad you did.
Skeleton key. This will get you into more doors than you’d think, with a bit of twisting about. Problem is, they’re prone to getting lost.
Coins. There’s always gold in an adventurer’s backpack. Or firegold or electrum to be more exact. Coin is necessary when you finally get to a town, but coins weigh up quickly, so adventurers tend to carry the highest currency they can, though they’ll always keep some smaller coins available for bargaining and bribing.
A light-weight cookpot. Quite necessary for boiling water and cooking up stews.
A journal, pen and ink. Come now. You’ve got to record all this stuff for your future children!
Things not typically found? You might think these are essentials, but they’re not, though some adventurers still swear by them.
Torches. These are bulky, messy (they usually utilize a core of pitch to keep them alight), and make tremendous amounts of smoke. A lantern is infinitely superior.
Grappling hooks. Grapples have their uses, but they are heavy, as well as unreliable in use. If you’re going to climb something, it’s better to secure your rope as you climb. To throw a grapple up and not know the nature of what it’s hanging onto is folly. Many injuries occur in this manner.
Fire carriers. These fancy metal tubes, insulated against being too hot, are designed to keep a coal smoldering inside for eight to ten hours. Though nice to have when fire-making conditions are poor, the metal tends to get too hot, and they don’t always work as they should if they’re not packed correctly. It’s just as easy to start a fire yourself.
As you can see, it’s not as glorious as I imagined when I was young. Those pictures of adventurers with huge packs bursting with shields, axes, weapons, numerous coils of ropes, and on and on? Those are the adventurers who never quite get out past their doorstep, because their packs are too heavy.
On the other hand, an adventurer’s pack has the potential to hold some other goodies as well, if the adventurer is successful. Healing potions, magical rings or amulets, treasure maps, keys to chests or vaults, old journals, and treasure that they’re hauling home – all these can also be found. So perhaps they’re not so boring after all.
An adventurer’s most precious belongings, of course, are his or her own skills and knowledge. The mark of an excellent adventurer is that they can be put into almost any situation and improvise. If you’re skilled at that, anything you bring along makes your adventure a little easier.
Good. Now that I’ve summed up so neatly what should be in an adventurer’s backpack, I made a point to intercept my friend Elizabeth, who just returned from adventuring for over a moon in the wilds south of Kern. Asking her if I could borrow her pack for a brief moment, I emptied it out on the street (with much protestation on her part – I informed her it was in the interest of education) and quickly noted down all it contained. So here, my friends, is a record of the contents of an actual adventurer’s backpack. Elizabeth’s comments are shown in parentheses.
A half-eaten sandwich wrapped in leather. (I was so close to Aranor, and it was kind of moldy. I guess I was saving it, just in case.)
A hundred and twenty feet of rope, and a grapple. (I thought I was going to be doing a lot of caving. Didn’t find a single one!)
A leather pouch filled with feathers. (I found this dead bird, you see, and had never seen one before. Have you ever seen such a weird pattern?)
An empty leather wineskin. (The bladder punctured, and I’ve probably put two days of work into trying to fix the cursed thing. I’ve been drinking out of a lot of muddy pools. It’s a wonder I’m not sick.)
An old, rusty axe- quite heavy. (I’ve managed to lose my sword, both my favorite knives, and the little scissors I always bring. I found this thing in an old hunting camp, and it’s been my only weapon and cutting tool for three passages now. You should try cutting bread with it!)
A journal. (It got soaked twice. Let me tell you, Rajaad, I really got myself into some odd situations this time. But I think it’s still legible . . .)
A dirty blanket. (What? It’s a good wool blanket. Those are just bloodstains from a deer. You see, I was really hungry, and not thinking too straight, and I tried to drag this entire deer carcass away from a panther’s cache . . . oh well, it’s a long story.)
A mirror. (Well, I’ve got to stay pretty, don’t I? What if I meet a troll?)
A fire carrier and flint and steel. (What’s wrong with those?)
After politely letting her know that she was a complete disgrace to the art, and that her disgrace would be forever immortalized in this treatise, I took her to dinner.
She did, after all, still look awfully pretty.