Wayland Standard Operating Procedures

This page lists the standard operating procedure of Wayland.

## Procedure Zero

Carry a written copy of Wayland Standard Operating Procedure for reference when traveling. When in doubt, take a safety team to ensure compliance with safety procedures.

## Collecting items

This applies whenever an item is to be picked up or handled. Specifically, any item which might be cursed, poisoned, trapped, disease-ridden, or otherwise potentially harmful. If only traps have been ruled out, the item can be swept into a bucket with a broom so that it may be transported elsewhere for identification, but it should not be handled. If at all possible, items should not be handled at all, and teams expecting to collect items should take shovels and buckets so that even identified items may be safely transported. Gloves are considered the bare minimum if an item has to be touched.

### Before disturbing items:

* **Check for traps:** Perception check. Take 20 if traps are strongly suspected, if healing is not readily available, or if the added time is not a problem.

### Before moving items:

* **Check for curses:** Detect magic
* **Check for poison:** Detect poison

Note 1: This is not 100% reliable. Some magic items do not register as magical, and some spells can conceal magical auras. Even *analyze dweomer* has its limitations, since magical artifacts can be made which do not register as magical. Additionally, diseases, parasites, binary toxins, and harmful alchemical substances cannot be detected magically. As such, items can still be highly dangerous even after this screening protocol. Even when items pass this screening, care should still be taken to avoid touching them when possible.

Note 2: If *mirror hideaways* are found, they should be treated as a trap triggered by movement unless and until the mirror is confirmed empty.

Moved items are to be clustered together and examined more carefully before they are used. The items can be stacked onto a shelf occupying no more than a five foot cube.

### Before touching, equipping, or using items:

* **Check for evil/chaotic/good/lawful auras:** Detect evil
* **Check for significant true neutral alignment:** See alignment
* **Check for harmful alchemical substances:** Get assistance from a gnome or half-orc alchemist with scent.
* **Check for disease-causing agents:** Diagnose disease
* **Check for item damage:** Perception. Repair magical items before using them.
* **Cleanse:** For food, drink, and other consumables, cast purify food and drink.
* **Clean:** For all other items, use prestidigitation to clean the item before equipping it.

Note 1: Do check for auras of all alignments. Some intelligent items can conceal their auras, and even a lawful good intelligent item can potentially become harmful if anyone picks it up and it compels them to act against their will for some special purpose. Alignment detection may work even if detect magic has failed.

Note 2: If problems were found before the cleanse/clean stage, repeat the appropriate test to verify that those problems have actually been resolved before using the item.

## Making camp

* **Predict weather**: Survival check.
* **Select a campsite:** Always pick a site which grants cover to those in the campsite, and preferably a site which does not grant cover to those outside of the campsite. On a night with sufficient moonlight and starlight to see by, try to pick a site which allows for spotting intruders at long distances. On a cloudy or moonless night, pick a site where the light from torches and a campfire would be well-concealed instead. Avoid making camp under dead trees or tree branches. If rain is anticipated, make camp on high ground, uphill from any rivers.
* **Check for magic:** *Detect magic*
* **Search for traps:** Perception check.
* **Establish guard shifts:** If possible, ensure there are always *at least* two guards on duty at all times. Ideally, use two-hour shifts and evenly split the party among the shifts, but use three or four-hour shifts if necessary to ensure there are at least two guards on duty. Arcane spellcasters should take either the first or last shift so they can get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
* **Set traps:** If any traps or alarms are available, place them on the areas of most likely approach. Try to cluster traps, and make sure everyone knows where the trap clusters are.
* **Arrange campsite:** Set up a cook fire if necessary. If not, lay down some stones to mark the camp center. Always line up the horses 20 feet south of the cook fire or camp center. This ensures everyone knows which way is which as soon as they wake up.
* **Choose guard points:** Guards should find concealed sites outside of direct firelight in order to keep their night vision and avoid being seen by infiltrators. Preferably, guards should face one another on opposite sides of the campfire, offset slightly so the campfire is not directly between them. Guards should try to station themselves at positions with some form of cover or concealment at their backs.

## Caving and building clearance

When going into a cave or building with likely enemies:

* **Maintain a rear guard at the entrance:** At least four competent fighters with melee and ranged weapons, signal horns, a good view of the entrance, and shelter from any likely rockfalls, building collapses, avalanches, or other hazards.
* **Inspect the ceiling for any risk of cave-in or collapse:** Use a knowledge (engineering) or knowledge (dungeoneering) check. Everyone who is trained in identifying risk of collapse should do so if possible.
* **Inspect the floor for risk of flooding:** Is there apparent mud or sediment on the floor from prior floods? Is the floor wet? If so, where did the water come from? Is there risk of further flooding during the exploration?
* **Search for traps:** Make continuous perception checks while advancing to look for any traps. If there's plenty of time to spare, take 20 on these checks. If time is short, at least do a cursory inspection with a single perception check.

## Safety teams

Safety teams may be brought along to help with item collection and rear guarding. They may also assist with checking for traps. A safety team consists of:

* Five night wolves
* A sorcerer, wizard, cleric, druid, inquisitor, oracle, or witch who can cast detect magic and detect poison, with decent training in spellcraft and alchemy.
* One rogue with an emphasis on finding and disabling traps
* Three drivers (of the Rogue (driver) archetype)
* Three heavy wagons. Two for passengers, one for cargo.
* Six heavy horses to pull the wagons
* General supplies: Two buckets, two shovels, a 10 ft. ladder, four 10 ft. poles, a grappling hook, a magnet, 100 ft. of hemp rope, 100 ft. of twine, four torches of continuous flame, five tiny cages with 10 canaries and three homing pigeons.
* Signal horns and signal whistles for everyone.

Note: Messages with the official designation of the safety team and its current location with a warning that the team is under attack are to always be attached each of the three of the pigeons' legs. The message is to be updated every half-hour of travel, and the new message is to always be attached before the old message is removed. Pigeons are to be spread across the wagons to ensure that no single saboteur could prevent the message from reaching Wayland. When the message is updated, the pigeon cage is to be held up so the other wagons can see that no message has been sent.

Safety teams may bring additional wagons, horses, and drivers to transport a party if the party lacks its own form of transportation. Private exploration parties may petition the Wayland council for permission to have a safety team accompany them on exploration.

## See also

* Wayland City Guard Standard Operating Procedures