Editing Trinity:The Toplanders (section)

===Crafting using Bug Carapaces===
Almost everything from the corpse of a bug is usable, in terms of crafting items. Internal organs aside, a skilled crafter can work the bits and pieces in a manner similar to how iron, chitin, or leather would be worked.

Crafting armor out of the bug carapaces is similar to how armor is [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm#dragonhide crafted from dragonhide]. In addition to the normal armors craftable, a bug's carapace can be used to make leather armor or a [[Trinity:Armor#Leather_Trenchcoat|leather trenchcoat]] for a creature of the same size as the bug; also, bug carapaces can be used to make [[Trinity:Armor#Chitin_Armor|chitin armor]], with the same restrictions as making banded mail. Multiple bug carapaces can be combined to produce more choice material for crafting - two Medium corpses can be combined to be treated as a Large corpse, while two Large corpses (or their equivalent) can be combined to be used as a Huge corpse.

In addition, due to the extreme hardness of the bugs' skeletal structures (both endo- and exo-), a clever crafter can craft weapons out of the corpses, as well. A weapon of one-handed size or smaller can be made in place of a shield, if the rest of the carapace is used to craft armor; if an entire carapace is used to produce weapons, it can produce: two two-handed weapons of a size equal to the size of the corpse; or, four one-handed weapons; or, eight light weapons. Ranged weapons require more choice bits of the creature (finding an appropriate sinew for a bow, for example, is rather difficult, as is finding bones that would function for a crossbow) - as such, halve the number of weapons of that size that can be made for the corpse being used.

In addition, such weapons benefit from the extreme sharpness of the various parts of a bug's body, resulting in a natural +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls. Armor and shields crafted from a bug's body are almost supernaturally hard and resilient to blows, resulting in a +1 enhancement bonus to their AC bonus.

In terms of crafting Force items, bug carapaces do not function especially well as raw components. However, enough bits and pieces can be pieced together to make something vaguely resembling the end goal, if rather organic in appearance. Materials from a bug carapace equivalent to what is required to make a one-handed weapon (see above) are worth 100 gp in terms of raw materials for constructing Force items.

In terms of crafting other kinds of items, the internal organs of the bugs can be used to construct technological devices from the Chemistry field (and the Chemistry field only); such devices have a rather bitter and disgusting smell and a worse taste, but they function well enough. Since these materials aren't useful for anything else, a Medium-size bug's corpse can be raided for parts that can be used to construct two Chemistry devices; for each category above Medium, this number doubles (a Small bug, then, would provide sufficient parts for one Chemistry device, while smaller bugs are simply too small to be of any use).

The corpses of bugs can also be used for the purposes of structures, including buildings and vehicles. To construct a vehicle of a given size, the crafter must have corpses sufficient to be one size category larger than the vehicle; for instance, to craft a Large vehicle, bug corpses whose combined size is Huge are required. However, such vehicles greatly resemble the corpses from which they were assembled, making them difficult and unusual to pilot, resulting in a PCP to the vehicle of -4. For every additional size category larger the assembled bug corpses are, this penalty is reduced by -2 (so in order to build a Large vehicle without a PCP, you would require bug caparaces whose combined size would be Colossal). A vehicle crafted out of bug carapaces uses the following stats for its material.

 '''CHITIN''' (LA +0)
 	Hardness: 2.	STR +0
 	Armor: +1.	DEX -2
 	PCP: (varies)	CON +2
 	Cold Vulnerability, Acid Immunity.