Master COOK!

COOK (#26/28, #57/365) [POT]

SKILL: 6

STAMINA : 7

ATTACKS: 1

WEAPON: Cleaver (as per Axe) or Knife (as per Throwing Dagger)

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: None

HABITAT: Towns, Dungeons, Ruins

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 1-3

TYPE: Humanoid

REACTION: Friendly-Hostile

INTELLIGENCE: High

The lands of Titan are rich (or not, opinions vary) with culinary tradition and the COOK is the person who prepares the food on which the world dines. Also known as Chefs (three of which were employed by the wizard Throngard at his fortress in the heart of Ergon Wood), the Cook is usually encountered in their kitchen, wearing a set of stained clothes, with or without a hat, and armed with a cleaver (damage as per a Handaxe), and 1-3 knives (which can be hurled as per Throwing Daggers). The ancestry of Cooks can vary; roll on the table below to determine the most likely candidates:

Roll Ancestry

1-2 Human 

3-4 Dwarf 

5 Flayer 

6 Hag

A Cook will always have a selection of 2-7 items of food and drink in their kitchen. These can be generated using the appropriate section in Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1 (pp. 53-60). Alternatively, if you lack access to that book (a situation that you should recitfy as soon as possible by purchasing it), you can roll on the table below to determine what a Cook may have:

First Roll Second Roll Food or Drink

1-3            1            Roast Aardwolf Joint

1-3            2            Bag of Vittles

1-3            3            Bomba Fruit

1-3            4            Bottle of Wine

1-3            5            Skullbuster

1-3            6            Gloister and Bread

4-6            1            Herbal Tea

4-6            2            Lizard Eyeball Pate

4-6            3            Mutant Meatballs

4-6            4            Orc Ale

4-6            5            Pickled Dung Beetles

4-6            6            Whortle Soup          

The reaction of a cook to intruders in their food preparation space can vary widely. Some are enthusiastic at the opportunity to share their latest culinary creations with bemused adventurers, while others are just happy to make some coin selling provisions of dubious repute. Variously, another Cook may be outraged at the intrusion into their kitchen workplace and react aggressively, while there are even those with cannibalistic tendencies (or just a high need for fresh meat) who will actively seek to murder strangers and add their suitably seasoned cadavers to whatever they are currently cooking up. If needed, roll a die and consult the table below to determine the Cook's (possibly current) reactionary state:

Roll Reaction

1-2 Friendly

3-4 Neutral

5 Unfriendly

6 Hostile

Some Cooks are so infamous as to become legendary, such as Inglenook of Valisnore, or Bladderwrack who served the Pirate Lord Cinnabar. The Dwarf Pookie and his brothers Glantie and Hungie ran several Eating Houses at various underground dungeons across north-western Allansia, while the Sisters of Sheena from the Black Tower were renowned as much for their sinister experiments on the side regardless of whatever nosh they were cooking up for the inhabitants of Balthus Dire's citadel. Other races of Cooks are of course prevalent, though not as common as the above ancestral types, such as the Hobgoblin Throg, whose kitchen in the Fortress of Mampang was a byword for almost-certain gastrointestinal issues for those non-denizens foolish enough to dine on its so-called "cuisine".