Crafting at the Greywatch

Crafting at the Greywatch

The Greywatch is the party's workshop as much as its fortress. Its facilities are what turn raw monster-parts into finished gear.

The five gates

To craft any item you need all of the following:

1. A pattern — a known design, or an improvised build under the general rules.
2. A proficient crafter — a character proficient with the listed tool.
3. A facility — the matching Greywatch facility (or a town that rents one, at extra cost and time).
4. The materials — harvested parts on hand, spent as Craft Value; see the Harvested Materials ledger for what the party holds.
5. Cost and time — gold and downtime days below.

Greywatch facilities

Facility	Tool	Crafts
Forge	Smith's Tools	Weapons, shields, metal & scale armor
Tannery	Leatherworker's Tools	Hide armor, cloaks, membrane goods
Laboratory	Alchemist's Supplies	Potions, oils, bombs, organ processing
Arcane Study	Arcana / spell focus	Wands, foci, lenses, and any enchanted (magic) item

A facility the party controls lets the harvested material cover the item's raw-material cost — you pay only the labor/reagent figure below. Renting a town facility removes that offset (pay full market) and adds 50% to the time.

Cost and time by rarity

(At a controlled Greywatch facility, materials supplied.)

Rarity	Cost (labor & reagents)	Time
Common	25–50 gp	1–3 days
Uncommon	100–200 gp	1–2 weeks
Rare	1,000–2,000 gp	3–6 weeks
Very Rare	10,000–20,000 gp	8–12 weeks

Component Crafting Economy

Harvested components do more than fill a recipe — each carries a Craft Value (CV) set by its rarity, and an item is built by spending CV against a threshold.

Craft Value by rarity: Scraps 1 · Common 2 · Uncommon 4 · Rare 8 · Very Rare 16 · Legendary 32 · Artifact 64. (Each tier doubles, so laddering up from cheap parts is possible but deliberately inefficient.)

Building an item. Choose an item type — potion, poison, oil, scroll, ammunition, weapon, armor, shield, wand, staff, or wondrous item. Name one primary component: it sets the item's effect and caps its rarity. Then add secondary components whose type-tag matches the item until the total CV crosses a threshold. The output rarity is the highest threshold met — never above the primary's rarity.

Output rarity	Single-use (potion, poison, oil, scroll, ammo)	Permanent / recharging (weapon, armor, shield, wand, staff, wondrous)
Common	2 CV	4 CV
Uncommon	4 CV	8 CV
Rare	8 CV	16 CV
Very Rare	16 CV	32 CV
Legendary	32 CV	64 CV

A permanent or recharging item always costs twice the CV of a single-use item of the same tier. CV spent above the primary's rarity cap is wasted, or — at the DM's option — buys a minor flavor rider.

Effects by output rarity. Common components have no magic; they are pure CV and structure. Magic begins at Uncommon: Uncommon = +1, or one minor 1/day effect; Rare = +2, or a solid effect with a small rider; Very Rare = +3 / +2-with-teeth, or a strong 3/day effect; Legendary = a signature, multi-part effect. The primary component's descriptor themes the result; secondaries may add riders at the DM's discretion.

The rarity cap. The primary component caps the output: a Rare primary can never yield better than a Rare item, however much CV you pour in.

Worked examples

• An effect-bearing horn → staff. A Very Rare horn (16 CV; staff-stock; an elemental theme) is the primary. A staff is permanent, so Very Rare needs 32 CV. The horn alone (16) only meets the Rare threshold → a Rare staff carrying part of its intended power. Add another 16 CV of matching staff parts and it completes as a full Very Rare staff.
• Sense-lens + structural plates → shield. A Rare lens (8 CV; storm & divination; cap = Rare) is the primary. The lens alone (8) meets Uncommon → an Uncommon shield. Add four Common plates (+8 CV) to reach 16 → a Rare shield, the most the lens will allow.

Bastion turns

One bastion turn = 7 days. A crafter occupies one facility for the duration of a project; multiple crafters at different facilities work in parallel. A project longer than one bastion turn continues across turns so long as the facility and crafter remain assigned.

Example

The party wants a Rare suit of scale armor. They have a smith proficient with Smith's Tools, a Forge at the Greywatch, and an effect-bearing scale to anchor it. They pay 1,500 gp and assign the smith to the Forge for 5 weeks (most of one bastion turn five times over — or run it alongside other projects at other facilities).