Let a mule do it for you!

By Robert Plamondon

 

-	-	-	-	-
Dragon 48	-	MM3	-	Dragon

Many players of fantasy role-playing games have their characters take mules with them on adventures, hoping to fill their
empty saddlebags with loot. Few players think of putting more
than a few arrows and an extra bottle of wine on the mule for the
trip in; mules are for the journey home.

This often turns out be a fatal mistake, for a mule can carry an
enormous amount of gear to keep the party going in unexpected circumstances. If you’ve ever run out of light and arrows
in the same expedition, a well-laden mule is probably just what
you need.

One method of arriving at the optimum assortment of gear for
your faithful pack animal is to try everything and then throw out
the stuff you never use. This is the method I used with my thief,
Black Bart, who was fortunate enough to run in a world where
mules could carry amazing loads due to DM leniency. In a
stricter dungeon, this method would undoubtably lead to overloading the mule and reducing its movement rate, as well as
leaving no extra carrying capacity for treasure. We therefore
need to arrive at a more efficient system for sorting out the
useful gear from the rest.

Probably the most common type of equipment to load onto
the mule is consumable goods; stuff that will be used up in the
course of an adventure, such as food, torches, arrows, and beer.
These are the kinds of items that the characters probably don’t
want to carry around themselves, at least in large quantities,
and since they gradually get used up the mule will have more
and more room for treasure as the adventure progresses.

Another major category for dungeon gear is replacement
items. Such things as lanterns and axes tend to get broken when
used as makeshift molotov cocktails and iron box openers,
respectively. Items which tend to get broken or mangled on

expeditions should have backups on the mule. This also applies
to weapons in general and bowstrings in particular.

Special-purpose equipment can be very important if you can
correctly predict what you need to take. This category includes
all of those crazy things you think just might come in handy,
such as rope and pulleys, mining tools, or a battering ram. In
many dungeons some of these things would be considered
essential, while in as many others they would be totally worthless.
Special-purpose equipment is usually selected after finding out the specifics about the area of the adventure, although
chaotics might decide to bring along all sorts of junk in any
circumstances, on speculation.

Another important class of items, at least to low-level characters, is “repellants,” which include garlic, belladonna, wolvesbane, mirrors, and holy water. Evil characters might add poison
to the list. Repellants are rather poor as offensive weapons, but
they discourage certain opponents (wolvesbane disgusts werecreatures, while garlic and mirrors turn vampires off), or even
kill them, such as when a mirror reflects back a basilisk’s gaze or
holy water destroys one of the undead. Belladonna is included
as a repellant because it’s a sort of vaccine against lycanthropy,
and because it doesn’t fit any of the other specific categories.

Note that holy water is quite a powerful weapon against the
undead; unless there is a powerful Cleric in your party, your
only real chance to overcome the nastier undead creatures is to
shower them with holy water. If you have a negative armor class
and magic weapons you might try single combat with the next
vampire that turns up, but when you get six levels drained off
before you kill him I’ll be right there saying, “I told you so.” Any
cretin can throw holy water, and vampires and the like are often
much more vulnerable to half a dozen people hurling vials at
them than to a single fighter with a bright sword.

The last categories are tools, mule gear, and miscellaneous.

The tools you take depend a lot on the construction of the
dungeon (or whatever) that you happen to be looting at the
moment, and personal tastes and talents also affect selection.
Everyday tools like hammers, chisels, pliers and files often
come in handy, and many other tools can be useful in some
circumstances. A small tool kit can save lives and gain treasure,
since daggers and axes can’t always replace more specialized
tools, especially in any delicate work you may have to perform.

Mule gear includes the mule’s bit and bridle, horse meal,
saddlebags, and the mule itself. The saddlebags are very important; a well-designed set of saddlebags is a lifesaver, while
haphazardly throwing bundles and bags onto the mule will
make finding items so difficult that the entire party could be
eaten before the necessary object is found. One good system is
to have a set of huge saddlebags custom made with a lot of large
outside pockets, which are labelled as to what is inside. This
way, someone who is unfamiliar with the layout of equipment in
the packs will still be able to find things quickly. The least
accessible compartments should hold things not normally used
in melee, such as food and treasure.

The selection of a mule should be made with some care.
Although mules can usually be persuaded to go into dungeons,
this does not mean that they will behave well while inside, Many
mules will bray or run or both at the first sign of trouble, which is
embarrassing and sometimes fatal to the party. Mules can be
trained to accept a foul-smelling, dangerous underground setting by getting them accustomed to being in such places. Players can train mules in uninhabited caves and ruined fortifications, offending their sensibilities until the animals are used to
odd smells, dank dungeons, and strange noises. All of this takes
time — up to several months if you want a really good mule —
but the players can hire someone else to do the job so that they
remain free to go adventuring while the mule is being trained.

A more elegant (and more expensive) method is to get a local
Druid to thoroughly charm a mule to its owner (a variant of
Charm Mammal) and train it through an Animal Friendship
spell.

Mules are semi-intelligent (Int of 2-4) and can learn three
tricks per point of Intelligence. These tricks would typically
include attacking on command, going where directed, standing
quietly, and running (not “stampeding”) back to the surface. A
good job on the part of the Druid will make the mule absolutely
dependable in any situation that doesn’t involve magical fear or
revulsion (such as from a lich or a ghast), but since the Druid
needs to spend a week on teaching each trick, such training is
expensive; DM’s should make sure players pay through the
nose for such intensive work.

All of the goodies that don’t fit into the categories already
mentioned get lumped together as Miscellaneous. Such items
might include blankets, sacks, bribe money, etc.

Black Bart’s standard “mule sheet,” accompanying this article, has its items listed by category. Costs and weights are
taken (when available) from the AD&D Basic Equipment and
Supplies Cost table in the Players Handbook, and the Encumbrance of Standard Items table in the Dungeon Masters Guide.
When an item was not listed, I guessed. In one case I disagreed
with the Encumbrance Table; holy water is listed as weighing 25
gold pieces, or 2½ pounds. This is too heavy for four ounces of
water in a thin glass vial, so I used five gp per vial in the table.

The mule can only move at its full movement rate of 120 feet
per turn if it's hauling a weight of 2,000 gp or less. More gear will
slow it down to half speed (60 feet per turn), which can cause
you to lose all your treasure when the mule lags behind as you
flee the dungeon with wolves at your heels. The mule can’t carry
more than 6,000 gp under any circumstances.

These limits make weight the most important criterion when
deciding which useful items must be left behind. Bart’s gear
weighs 1,976 gp, including the saddlebags, and costs 363 gp, 7
sp. With this load the mule can carry only 24 gp extra weight
before slowing to half speed, but can haul 4,024 more before
exceeding the maximum load for half speed. Bart is greedy, so
his saddlebags are large enough to hold more than 4,024 gp in
coin without throwing anything out.

The dungeon Bart loots is small enough to make one-day
expeditions practical, so it is something less than suicidal for
him to not put any water on the mule (he carries a skinful in his
pack, instead). If you tend to make camp underground, I would
suggest taking two mules, the second carrying mostly food and
water.

Weight considerations also kept Bart from putting those
heavy iron spikes on the mule. He carries a dozen in a pouch
anyway, so he puts wooden wedges on the mule for doorholding; they’re cheaper, lighter and quieter than iron spikes as
doorstops.

It is important to not lose sight of the idea that the mule is used
primarily as life insurance underground, and that the gear on
the mule should be chosen to be helpful to the entire party, not
just the mule’s owner. Even a chaotic will recognize that letting
other people put the stuff they’ll need on the mule will improve
his life expectancy. Chaotics can cooperate too — if they
remember to, and if you don’t expect too much from them.

Finally, the mule can carry out a couple of dead or badly
injured characters, eliminating a major source of unsightly
dungeon litter. The people who are saved through your mule’s
assistance are often very grateful — especially if one of them
happens to be you.
 
 
 
 

What Black Bart's mule carries
(Cost && weight in GP unless labeled otherwise)

-	No.	Weight	Cost
Consumables	-	-	-
Arrows	60	12#	8
Iron Rations	2	15#	10
Molotov cocktails	10	#20	20
Oil flasks	10	#20	10
Silver arrows	10	2#	10
Slow match	50 feet	1#	5 sp
Torches	10	25#	1 sp
-	-	-	-
Replacement Items	-	-	-
Bowstrings	10	0.1#	1
Hooded lantern	1	6#	7
Short bow	1	5#	15
-	-	-	-
Repellants	-	-	-
Belladonna	2	0.1	8 sp
Garlic cloves	10	0.2	5 sp
Holy water	10	5#	250
Mirrors, sm. metal	2	1#	10
Wolvesbane	10	.3	5
-	-	-	-
Tools	-	-	-
Axe, firewood	1	4#	1
Chisel, large	1	1#	10 sp
File, large	1	1#	1
Wedges, wooden	30	#6	0
-	-	-	-
Mule Gear	-	-	-
Bit and bridle	1	3#	15 sp
Meal, horse	5 days	10#	10 sp
Saddlebags, huge	1	20#	8
-	-	-	-
Miscellaneous	-	-	-
Blankets	2	6#	1
Rope	150 feet	22.5#	12 sp
Sacks, large	5	10#	8 sp
Tinder boxes	2	0.4#	2