Skin command

Skin
Removes a pelt, skin, bone or similar part from the carcass of a dead creature. It is the main way to train the Skinning skill, and the resulting parts can be sold or used in the crafting systems.
SKIN (success) You see: With preternatural poise, you work loose a sterling example of a rat pelt from the rat carcass.   You carefully fit a rat pelt into your bundle.   Roundtime: 2 sec. Others see: With preternatural poise, <Name> works loose a rat pelt from the rat carcass. SKIN (failure) You see: A small slip at the last moment renders your skinning attempt an unfortunate failure.   Roundtime: 2 sec. Others see: A mistimed movement by <Name> renders <his/her> skinning attempt an unfortunate failure. Success and failure each have a range of messages keyed to how well the attempt went.

Syntax

• SKIN

Skins the last creature you killed, provided its carcass is still in the room and has not been skinned yet. Failing that, the last creature you were engaged with, and failing that, any unskinned carcass in the room.

• SKIN <creature>

Skins the named carcass. If you killed a creature of that same name, that kill is preferred over any other carcass in the room.

• SKIN <first/second/third...> <creature>

Picks between several carcasses of the same creature in the room.

• SKIN HELP

Displays the helpfile below.

Game Helpfile

--==SKINNING HELP==--
Syntax:  SKIN (creature)
SKIN allows you to remove pelts, skins, etc. from the carcasses of dead creatures.
You must be holding a sharp weapon and have a free hand.  The optimal tool is a skinning knife.
If there are more than one of the same creature in the room, you can specify first creature, second creature, etc.  SKIN by itself will default to the last creature you killed.
Note: You will want to ARRANGE a corpse if you want to increase quality and difficulty, as well as change which part you are attempting to skin.

Usage

You need one free hand and something bladed to cut with. A skinning knife or other knife worn on the belt or wrist is used automatically without drawing it, which makes skinning between attacks much less tedious.

The tool decides a bonus or penalty to the attempt:

• A held skinning knife is best, followed by any other held knife.
• A worn knife comes next. Being worn overrides the adjective, so a worn "skinning knife" rates the same as any other worn knife.
• Other light edged weapons are close behind, with medium edged, heavy edged and two-handed edged progressively worse. Pikes and halberds are the worst tools of all.
• Rangers take no penalty for a poor tool, and get a little extra out of a worn knife.

Whether the attempt succeeds is a contest between your own skill — modified by Agility, Intelligence and Discipline, and by the tool — and the difficulty of the carcass, which rises with the creature's level. Both success and failure carry 2 seconds of roundtime, and both teach the skill, though a failure teaches less.

A carcass can only be skinned once, whether the attempt succeeded or not, and it does not have to be one you killed yourself. The part lands in a free hand, and is added straight to a worn or held bundle if you have one adjusted for that kind of part and not yet full:

You carefully fit a rat pelt into your bundle.

Creatures yield parts, skins or bones. Left alone the game picks between whatever that creature offers; ARRANGE the carcass first to choose what you are going for, and to raise the ceiling on the quality of the result. A fully arranged carcass is limited only by the skinner's own ability.

Messaging

Both success and failure have a ladder of messages keyed to how well the attempt went; Skinning skill lists them from best to worst.

Attempts that never get started produce one of the following:

• Skin what? — nothing in the room qualifies.
• You can't skin something that's not dead!
• You can't skin that!
• The <creature> has already been skinned.
• The <creature> cannot be skinned. — the creature has nothing harvestable.
• You must have one hand free to skin.
• You'll need to have a bladed instrument to skin with. — both hands are empty and you are not wearing a knife.
• You'll need a more appropriate weapon to skin with. — what you are holding has no edge.
• You're too wounded to be skinning anything!
• You're carrying far too many items already. — the inventory limit; the game follows this with [Try typing INVENTORY CHECK].

See Also

• ARRANGE
• BUNDLE
• DISSECT
• Skinning skill
• Skinning knife

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