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:
- A pattern — a known design, or an improvised build under the general rules.
- A proficient crafter — a character proficient with the listed tool.
- A facility — the matching Greywatch facility (or a town that rents one, at extra cost and time).
- The materials — harvested parts on hand, spent as Craft Value; see the Harvested Materials ledger for what the party holds.
- 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. Paid once per build, whatever the batch size.)
| 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, bomb, 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 target rarity is the highest threshold met — never above the primary's rarity.
| Output rarity | Single-use (potion, poison, oil, bomb, 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.
The crafting roll
Building an item is not automatic. With a facility, a proficient crafter, and the components in hand, make a crafting check with the item's tool (d20 + the crafter's tool bonus) at the end of the build. The same roll sets the realized quality and, for consumables, the quantity of the output. The CV you spent buys a target rarity; the roll nudges what actually comes off the bench.
Quality (all items).
| Crafting roll | Quality |
|---|---|
| 9 or less | Under-tuned — the effect lands half a step low (fewer charges, reduced dice, a missing rider). Still a working item. |
| 10–19 | As built — the target rarity, full effect for its tier. |
| 20–29 | Half a step high — the strong end of its tier (an extra charge, +1 die, a small bonus rider). |
| 30+ | A full rarity step higher. |
A crafting roll never ruins the materials — even a low roll yields the item, only under-tuned. Quality shifts are bounded by the primary's rarity cap: a roll cannot push an item above what its primary allows. If you have already built to the cap, a 30+ instead delivers the capped item at its strongest (treat as the half-step-high result) alongside any quantity benefit.
Quantity (consumables only). A single build of a potion, poison, oil, bomb, scroll, or ammunition yields a batch; permanent items are always made one at a time.
| Crafting roll | Batch size |
|---|---|
| 1–9 | 1 |
| 10–19 | 2 |
| 20–29 | 3 |
| 30+ | 4 |
Every item in a batch is identical and carries the same quality result from the roll. The gold and time cost is paid once per build, whatever the batch size.
Bombs (thrown consumables)
A bomb is a single-use item delivered to an area — the trait that sets it apart from a potion (drunk), a poison (applied to a weapon), or an oil (coated on). It shares the single-use CV column; only the delivery differs.
- Throw: an action; range 20/60 ft; bursts in a 10-ft radius (15 ft at Very Rare or better).
- Save: each creature in the radius makes a Dexterity save, DC 8 + the crafter's tool bonus, for half damage or to avoid the rider.
- Effect by rarity: Uncommon ≈ 2d6 of the primary's element, or a minor 1-round area condition; Rare ≈ 4d6 + a rider (difficult terrain, lightly obscured, a creature outlined for a minute); Very Rare ≈ 6–8d6 + a strong, persisting rider.
- Primaries: offensive or condition-applying glands, spores, bile, and venom. Contributors: the inert fluids — blood, ichor, fat — as binding agent and propellant.
Bomb examples
- Spore-cap → faerie fire bomb. A corrupted-myconid spore-cap (Uncommon primary; outlined as faerie fire). A single-use Uncommon item needs 4 CV, so the cap alone builds it: on burst, creatures in the radius are limned in light for a minute — advantage to hit them, no benefit from invisibility — Dex save negates. Build to Rare (8 CV) for a wider burst or to drop the save.
- Scalding Steam Gland → steam bomb. The gland is a Very Rare primary (16 CV), and a single-use Very Rare bomb needs exactly 16 CV — so the gland alone makes one: a 15-ft burst of scalding steam, fire damage with a Dex save for half, the area left lightly obscured and difficult for a round. The tradeoff: that same gland is only half the 32 CV a permanent Very Rare wand or staff would need — one big throw, or progress toward a keepsake focus.
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), then roll Smith's Tools to set its quality.