Cooking is the cornerstone of your life. Not food - cooking. You enjoy gathering your ingredients from a well stocked cellar, a farmer’s market, or a foggy hillside. The deep satisfaction of grinding and chopping and pickling your ingredients is the best meditation of your day. And you are good at it - your dishes may or may not look fancy but the flavours satisfy the pickiest eaters and people swear your stews could heal the dead.
Natural talent got you part of the way but you’ve honed this skill through years of practice and mentorship. It might have been at a fancy city school or at your grandparent’s side, but you are privy to secrets of an informal fellowship of cooks not many ever get to see.
- Skill Proficiencies: Perhaps you spend weeks in the wilds following the ebb and flow of growing things. Maybe you haunt the deep forest tracking unusual game. It may be you spend hours in the market elbow to elbow with the crowds dickering over the price of rare ingredients. For whatever reason your talents in the kitchen have nurtured a special skill outside it. Pick one: Nature, Survival, Persuasion
- Tool Proficiencies: Choose one: Cook's Utensils, Brewer's Supplies, Herbalism Kit
- Languages: Exchanging recipes with fellow chefs, you’ve had to learn at least one other language just to be able to read the notes in the margins!
- Equipment: Cook's Utensils, a utilitarian cooking pot, a damned fine cooking utensil (a beloved meat cleaver, a perfectly seasoned iron frying pan etc) a spice box, a mess kit, and a book of valued recipes.
Great cooks come from all backgrounds - warm kitchens and cold streets, noble families and startling orphans. Choose what drew you to cooking from the list below.
| d6 | Where'd you get the taste? |
|---|---|
| 1 | You come from a long line of cooks and herbalists - you had as little choice in having cooking lessons as you did about having your grandmother’s nose. |
| 2 | You taught yourself to cook out of self defense. For whatever reason, if you had to survive on the food you got at home you’d have wasted away long ago. |
| 3 | Someone you cared for used to cook for you, and though they are gone, their recipies keep them close to your hart. |
| 4 | Food is the way to people’s hearts. And wallets. |
| 5 | Nevermind that - taste this. Does the sauce need more tarragon? |
| 6 | When you’re cooking, all your stress and worries just melt away. It’s your happy place. |
You are familiar with secret uses for the most common ingredients. Wherever you are, whatever you have - if the ingredients are edible you can make something tasty and nutritious out of it. Or...the opposite. Food of any kind acts as a healers or poisoners kit in your hands.
Spell List
Your mastery of the art of cooking doesn’t just seem like magic, it is magic. You know a smattering of tiny tricks to make your life easier that adds up to the Cantrip: Prestidigitation. From starting a cookfire to freshening dried herbs, from cleaning your cutting board to quickly mincing an onion, you will never be able to damage someone with this but oh man is it helpful.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | prestidigitation |
Suggested Characteristics
Cooks come in all different personalities, from kind and gentle caregivers to brash, acerbic perfectionists.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I’ll settle for nothing less than perfection - in my food, in my tools, in everything. |
| 2 | I enjoy using my culinary skills to make people feel better and am always ready with a cup of tea or a hot meal for a friend. |
| 3 | I’m constantly sizing up everything around me - is the food fresh? Were the tools put away? Is the door locked? Do we have enough tea for the journey? It has saved my hide more than once but it can be wearying on my companions. |
| 4 | I’m a snob who looks down on those who can’t appreciate fine food and drink. |
| 5 | I am deeply secretive about my recipies and techniques. |
| 6 | I don’t part with my money easily and will haggle tirelessly to get the best deal possible. |
| 7 | I am well known for my food, and I like to make sure everyone appreciates that. I’m always taken aback when someone hasn’t heard of me. |
| 8 | Nobody stays quiet aroud good food for long. Whenever I cook for strangers, I collect local rumours, difuse tension, and spread gossip. |
| d4 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tradition. The stories, recipes, flavours, and skills of the past must never be forgotten for they make us what we are. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Creativity. The world needs new combinations and bold flavours expand and grow. (Chaotic) |
| 3 | People. I like seeing the pleasure people take from the things I make. It is a harsh world - these moments of joy are all that matter. (Neutral) |
| 4 | Honesty. You are what you eat. Every meal should reflect the qualities you want to bring to the world. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | My damned fine (knife/rolling pin/cast iron frying pan etc) is my most treasured posession, and reminds me of someone I love. |
| 2 | Someone stole my irreplacable book of recipies. They’d better watch out, because someday I’ll be coming to get it back. |
| 3 | I idolize a Damned Fine Cook/Epicurian of generations past and measure all my deeds against that peson’s. |
| 4 | I owe a debt I can never repay to the mentor who taught me how to cook, and taught me who I am. |
| 5 | We work the land, the land feeds us - and I will protect the land. |
| 6 | The kitchen where I learned to cook is the most important place in the world to me. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I’ll do anything to win fame and renown. |
| 2 | I have trouble keeping my true feelings hidden. My sharp tongue - or scalding cup of tea dropped in your lap - often lands me in trouble. |
| 3 | I have a weakness for some kind of intoxicant - wine, herb, oil - I can get all too easily. |
| 4 | If you don’t like something I cooked for you, or don’t finish it - I will sulk for hours. |
| 5 | I have absolutly no patience for braggarts. The proof is in the pudding, friends. If you can’t show me your skills, you’re nothing but an oven full of hot air. |
| 6 | My desire to taste new thngs and discover new recipes causes me to make unsafe choices. |
Contacts
Innkeepers, brewers, vintners, cheese mongers, butchers, fishmongers, farmers, and hunters form a web of connection between the fine cooks who use their wares and services. They help you obtain special ingredients and recipies, and are a source of news of use to adventurers - droughts that diminish the harvest, armies that deplete supplies, noble feuds that make oysters unfashionable...
Good food - no, exquisite food - is the cornerstone of your life. You enjoy gathering your ingredients from a well stocked cellar, an exclusive merchant, a rare and forgotten wine shop. The deep satisfaction of supervising the grinding and chopping and pickling your ingredients is the best meditation of your day. And you are good at it - your dishes not only look fancy but the flavours satisfy the most spoiled palate and people swear your bouilabaisse should cost five times what you charge for it.
Natural talent may have something to do with it but you’ve honed this skill through years of practice and mentorship. It might have been at a fancy city school or at your grandparent’s fine table, but you are privy to secrets of an exclusive fellowship of Epicurians not many ever get to see.
You have heard of mock apple pie, but have you heard of a mock cider Pinot Noir? You know what the good stuff tastes like, you know how to make lesser foods taste just like them. Weather bribing an innkeeper to get a better room or just making dinner tastier you are a food forger extraordinaire. Your knowledge of substitutes and flavour additives is akin to alchemy and in fact your specialized cooking kit doubles as an alechemy kit in times of need.
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