14 Crafting and Professions
This chapter is player-safe. Everything in it is available to player characters with the appropriate training. Crafting in Varenhold is not a neutral activity — what you make, and for whom, reflects the city’s fifty-year crisis in specific and tangible ways.
14.1 How Crafting Works
Crafting in Varenhold uses the standard D&D 5e rules with the following campaign-specific notes.
The basics: To craft an item, you need the appropriate tool proficiency, access to a workspace, the listed materials, and the listed number of hours. Roll the listed skill check at the end of the work period. On a success, the item is complete. On a failure by 5 or more, the materials are wasted.
Time: Crafting hours can be spread across multiple rests. “4 hours” means four hours of active work, not four hours elapsed. A character spending a full downday (not committed to other activities) can complete up to 8 hours of crafting.
Workspaces: Each profession requires a specific workspace, available in Varenhold as noted per profession. Access usually costs nothing if you know someone in the relevant district, or 3–5 marks for a half-day if you don’t.
Sourcing materials yourself: Players who spend time gathering their own materials (harvesting herbs, collecting amber, scavenging metal) can reduce material costs by up to half — but this counts as 1–3 additional hours of downday activity per material reduced.
Partial success: Some items note a partial success outcome at DC −2 (you meet the DC minus 2). Partial successes produce a usable item with a drawback or reduced effect, noted in the table.
14.2 What You Need
14.2.1 Tools
Each profession requires a specific tool set.
| Profession | Tools Required | Where to Acquire in Varenhold | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber Lampwork | Glassblower’s tools | Amber Workshop Guild, Dawnhalls district | 30 writs |
| Herbalism | Herbalism kit | Lowmark Healing House supply room; Ashfen Gate market | 5 writs |
| Alchemy | Alchemist’s supplies | Spire Quarter apothecary; lower quality from Lowmark market | 50 writs |
| Smithing | Smith’s tools | The Ironbell forge, Ashfen Gate; Outer Ring smithy | 20 writs |
| Jewelcrafting | Jeweler’s tools | Three workshops in the Spire Quarter; one in the Outer Ring | 25 writs |
If your background plausibly includes a profession (Guild Artisan, Hermit, Sage), you may already have the relevant tools. Ask your GM.
14.2.2 Workspaces
| Profession | Workspace Needed | Location in Varenhold | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber Lampwork | Workshop with calibrated heating oven | Amber Workshop Guild, Dawnhalls | Guild guest access; 4 marks/half-day |
| Herbalism | Herb drying room with ventilation | Lowmark Healing House; outdoors viable in good weather | Free at Healing House if known to Lira; 2 marks/day otherwise |
| Alchemy | Equipped laboratory with ventilation | Spire Quarter apothecary; Isolde’s lab (requires permission) | Apothecary: 5 marks/half-day |
| Smithing | Functioning forge | The Ironbell, Ashfen Gate; Outer Ring smithy | 5 marks/half-day |
| Jewelcrafting | Bench with magnification and steady lighting | Spire Quarter workshops | 4 marks/half-day |
14.3 The Five Professions
14.3.1 Amber Lampwork
The amber workshops are Varenhold’s most recognizable craft and its primary export. Before the twilight, glasswork in the city was ordinary — lanterns, windows, decorative pieces. After Year 1 of the permanent dusk, making light became the city’s most important industry.
The amber infusion process was developed by trial and error over the first five years of the twilight. The specific temperature calibrations are still guarded by Guild Master Helv Onn, but the general technique — heating amber resin to the precise point where it becomes both liquid and resonant, then introducing it into a glass housing as the housing cools — is now widely understood. What’s less understood is why the resulting light has the qualities it does: warmer than firelight, steadier than oil flame, with a specific spectrum that Spire scholars have been arguing about for decades. The lampworkers don’t discuss the theories. They discuss tolerances and batch times.
14.3.1.1 Materials
| Material | Source | Cost | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber resin, raw (per lb) | Amber Workshop Guild; Dawnhalls market | 2 writs | Core infusion ingredient for all lanterns |
| Blown glass housing (pre-made) | Guild supply; saves 2 hours of work if purchased | 8 writs | The lantern body |
| Void-touched wick (bundle of 5) | Spire Quarter apothecary (restricted item) | 15 writs | Advanced lanterns; extends light duration significantly |
| Spire-grade crystal (per chip) | Spire Quarter; access required | 20 writs | Calibrated lanterns; medical-grade lamps |
| Standard wick (bundle of 10) | Any chandler; Lowmark market | 5 marks | Standard lanterns |
| Lamp housing hardware | Any ironmonger | 3 marks | Hinges, pins, finishing |
14.3.1.2 What You Can Make
| Item | DC | Hours | Material Cost | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard amber lantern | 12 | 4 | 8 writs | 20 ft. bright / 20 ft. dim; trade value ~15 writs |
| Enhanced amber lantern | 14 | 6 | 14 writs | 30 ft. bright / 30 ft. dim; advantage on Perception checks made in amber-light conditions |
| Medical amber lamp | 16 | 8 | 25 writs | Low-flicker specialized light; worth 40 writs to the Healers’ Guild for care room use |
| Focused reading lantern | 12 | 3 | 6 writs | Directed 10 ft. cone; doesn’t disturb others at the same table; useful in the Archive |
| Amber panel (decorative) | 14 | 6 | 12 writs | 6-inch panel; worth 20–40 writs in the Outer Ring luxury market |
| Void-touched lantern | 18 | 10 | 45 writs | 40 ft. bright / 40 ft. dim; burns 50% longer between wick replacements |
Partial success (DC −2): Standard and enhanced lanterns have a 10% chance to flicker under stress (extreme cold, sudden impact). They function normally at rest.
14.3.1.3 Background Activities
- Morning at the Guild (half-day): Working a volunteer shift alongside regular lampworkers. Earns 3 marks and access to Guild-discounted materials for 48 hours. You may ask one Guild craftsperson a question about Varenhold’s amber history or workshop processes.
- Salvage and strip (1 hour): Stripping a damaged or broken lantern for usable components. DC 10 Dexterity (Glassblower’s tools) to recover amber resin worth 1d4 writs. Failure fuses the amber unusably.
- Calibration work (2 hours): Re-calibrating an existing amber lantern to extend wick burn time by 25% for one week. DC 12. No material cost.
14.3.1.4 Campaign Integration
An enhanced amber lantern (DC 14) is one of the most useful craftable items for this campaign’s investigation scenes. The Archive’s restricted sections, Isolde’s lower lab, and the approach to the Ashring at night all benefit from extended light range. Being a known lampworker in the Dawnhalls district opens social doors — Helv Onn remembers the craftspeople who use her workspace.
Craft Knowledge: Amber Lampwork
Proficient (Glassblower’s tools)
A proficient amber lampworker knows the basic infusion process: heat the amber resin to the resonance point, introduce it into the cooling glass housing, and set the wick calibration. They know which amber grades produce which light qualities, how long a standard lantern lasts between refuelling, and why the Varenhold workshops guard their temperature tolerances carefully.
History (proficient)
The amber lantern technique was developed in the first five years of the twilight, out of necessity. It is now Varenhold’s most successful export and the city’s defining craft. The light a Varenhold amber lantern produces is warmer and steadier than oil flame, with a spectral quality Spire scholars have been arguing about for decades. The lampworkers don’t discuss the theories. They discuss tolerances.
Arcana (DC 12, studying an amber lantern in detail)
The amber lantern’s light is not purely mundane. The infusion process does something to the amber’s resonant properties that standard physics of illumination doesn’t fully account for. The Spire’s public position is “interesting but not meaningful.” Their private research files contain considerably more interest and considerably less certainty.
14.3.2 Herbalism
The Lowmark Healing House smells of dried herbs, stone, and something faintly sweet. The herbalism practiced here is not academic. It developed under necessity — which plants from the Ashfen marsh compensate for which missing thing, which combinations slow the grey sickness’s progression, which roots can be substituted when supply runs short. Lira Anwick learned most of what she knows from a woman named Dara who died in Year 35. Dara learned from the Clans.
Varenhold’s herbalism has a specific character: it is not focused on wound care or infection (the Healers’ Guild handles those) but on the slower work of managing long-term deficiency. The grey sickness is a condition of absence. So is the herbalism practice that addresses it. The practitioners who work in the Lowmark don’t talk much about what they’re doing. They talk about the next supply delivery and whether the current batch of marsh oil is the right grade.
14.3.2.1 Materials
| Material | Source | Cost | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold-shade root (per bundle) | Ashfen Gate market; Clan traders | 1 writ | Base reagent for most compounds |
| Ashfen marsh herbs (mixed bundle) | Clan traders; irregular supply | 2 writs | Grey sickness compound ingredients |
| Grey sickness compound reagents (set) | Lowmark Healing House supply (limited) | 5 writs | Synthesis of treatment compounds |
| Graymere mountain moss (per bundle) | Holds caravans; irregular | 1 writ | Analgesic compounds; wound care support |
| River herbs, dried and common | Lowmark market | 3 marks | General tinctures; minor conditions |
| Preservation reagents (per batch) | Any apothecary | 4 marks | Extends shelf life of prepared compounds |
14.3.2.2 What You Can Make
| Item | DC | Hours | Material Cost | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic wound salve | 10 | 1 | 5 marks | Stabilizes a dying creature without a Medicine check; one use |
| River herb tea (batch of 5) | 10 | 1 | 3 marks | Removes one level of Exhaustion after 8-hour rest rather than requiring a full long rest; mild |
| Cold-shade tincture | 12 | 2 | 1 writ | Advantage on Constitution saving throws vs. cold damage for 1 hour; 1 dose |
| Lira’s compound (partial) | 16 | 6 | 8 writs | Slows Stage 1 grey sickness progression for 30 days; requires Lira’s formula (see below) |
| Analgesic compress | 12 | 2 | 1 writ | Advantage on Concentration checks for 4 hours; one use |
| Marsh oil extract, refined | 14 | 3 | 3 writs | Tradeable ingredient; worth 5 writs to alchemists or Healing House supply rooms |
| Stimulant draught | 14 | 3 | 2 writs | Removes one Exhaustion level immediately; next long rest requires 10 hours or the level returns |
Lira’s compound (partial): The full synthesis is Lira’s most carefully held knowledge. A partial version can be assembled by any skilled herbalist with her formula — but she will only share it with a character who has established significant trust (at GM discretion, usually no earlier than after Session 2 events). Without the formula, the DC for this item is 20, and a failure by 5 or more risks producing an accelerant rather than a treatment. The Lowmark has seen what bad batches do. Lira takes this seriously.
Partial success (DC −2): River herb teas and basic salves produced at partial success have half the listed duration or one fewer use.
14.3.2.3 Background Activities
- Morning at the Healing House (half-day): Volunteering a shift. DC 10 Medicine or Herbalism kit to avoid causing problems. Success: one patient remembers you specifically. Lira notices who does the unglamorous work.
- Ashfen Gate market sourcing (1 hour): Searching the Gate’s irregular market for quality supplies. DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) finds good herb prices; success reduces your next herb purchase cost by 30%.
- Herb gathering, marsh edge (half-day): Traveling to the marsh edge with Clan tolerance. DC 13 Survival to gather enough for 2d4 herb bundles without stripping the growth. The Clans notice the difference between respectful gathering and extraction.
14.3.2.4 Campaign Integration
Lira’s compound (partial) is the most politically significant craftable item in this campaign. A character capable of producing it becomes relevant to every faction: the Desperate want wider distribution, the Council worries about unsanctioned compound production, and Lira herself has complicated feelings about another person synthesizing her formula. It also creates a personal stake in the grey sickness storyline that doesn’t depend on a player character being personally affected by the condition.
Craft Knowledge: Herbalism
Medicine (proficient)
A proficient herbalist in Varenhold knows the major Ashfen plant compounds used in grey sickness treatment, the common substitution chains when supply runs short, and the difference between what helps and what only feels like it helps. Cold-shade root is the base reagent for most compounds. Marsh oil is the carrier. The exact ratios that actually slow Stage 1 progression are less widely known.
Nature (proficient)
The Ashfen marsh ecosystem has adapted to the twilight over fifty years in specific ways that affect plant potency. A proficient naturalist or herbalist knows which plants are more potent now than before the twilight, which ones have degraded, and that the Ashfen Clans’ knowledge of this is more current and more accurate than any Spire publication on the subject.
Medicine (DC 13, working at the Lowmark Healing House)
Lira’s compound produces results that exceed what the listed ingredients should produce. A careful herbalist who works alongside the Guild practitioners long enough begins to notice the gap. The most common theory among Healing House staff: the compound interacts with something in Lira’s preparation process that is not entirely reducible to technique. This is not a comfortable conclusion for anyone.
14.3.3 Alchemy
The Spire Quarter’s apothecary smells of sulfur and old paper. The alchemy practiced in Varenhold is systematic and specific — fifty years of twilight research has produced a body of alchemical knowledge found nowhere else: how to detect and measure the residual Lux energy that lingers around ritual sites, what compounds interact with the twilight’s atmospheric chemistry, how to stabilize materials that degrade in the absence of full sunlight.
Most Spire-trained alchemists will tell you their field advanced significantly under the twilight, precisely because they’ve had to think carefully about things other alchemists take for granted. They mean this as a point of professional pride. It is also a measure of how specific the circumstances were that produced the advancement.
14.3.3.1 Materials
| Material | Source | Cost | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashfen reagents (mixed set) | Clan traders; Lowmark market | 3 writs | General alchemy base; compatible with most Varenhold compounds |
| Residual lux particulate | Spire Quarter restricted supply; ambient collection near Primer Stones | 8 writs/vial | Detection compounds; ritual-adjacent research |
| Void-detection reagents (base set) | Spire Quarter apothecary | 5 writs | Void-detection powder and related items |
| Alchemical solvents (standard) | Any apothecary | 1 writ/flask | Universal base; necessary for most reactions |
| Amber essence (extracted) | Amber Workshop Guild | 4 writs/vial | Stability agent; used in suspension compounds |
| Spire-certified flux | Spire Quarter only | 12 writs | Stabilizes volatile compounds; required for advanced work |
14.3.3.2 What You Can Make
| Item | DC | Hours | Material Cost | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemist’s fire (standard) | 12 | 2 | 5 writs | Standard item; 1d4 fire damage per round until extinguished |
| Light-burst flask | 12 | 2 | 4 writs | On impact: 20 ft. flash; creatures within 10 ft. make DC 13 Con save or are blinded until end of next turn |
| Darkwater solution | 14 | 3 | 3 writs | Suppresses non-magical light in a 10 ft. area for 10 minutes |
| Void-detection powder | 16 | 4 | 12 writs | Glows faint blue within 30 ft. of ritual-active sites or locations with residual Lux energy |
| Lux stabilizer | 18 | 6 | 20 writs | Slows natural dissipation of Lux-touched materials; keeps ritual-adjacent objects stable for 24 hours outside their original site |
| Analytical acid | 14 | 3 | 4 writs | Dissolves organic material without damaging stone or metal; useful for examining sealed documents without destroying them |
| Sleep reagent, contact (1 dose) | 14 | 3 | 5 writs | DC 14 Constitution save or fall asleep for 1 hour; awakens on taking damage |
Partial success (DC −2): Void-detection powder at partial success triggers unreliably — 50% chance per location. Light-burst flasks at partial success affect only creatures within 5 ft.
14.3.3.3 Background Activities
- Spire apothecary access (half-day): Working in the apothecary alongside junior scholars. With a polite introduction, a proficient alchemist can use the full facility and learn one Varenhold-specific alchemical fact per session from a willing scholar. DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana) to retain complex technical information.
- Primer Stone proximity collection (1 hour): Collecting ambient residual lux particulate near the Ashring’s Primer Stones. Yields 1 vial of residual lux particulate. The plaza is public access; collecting near the Stones draws attention from any observers.
- Research trade (2 hours): Exchanging analysis notes with a Spire scholar. DC 14 Persuasion to interest them. Success: the scholar adds useful information in exchange for a prepared compound of their choice.
14.3.3.4 Campaign Integration
Void-detection powder (DC 16) becomes directly useful from Session 3 onward, when investigation scenes involve ritual-adjacent sites. A character who made it before that point has an advantage that feels earned rather than provided. The powder doesn’t tell you why something is active — it tells you something is. That distinction matters to both the player and the story.
Craft Knowledge: Alchemy
Arcana (proficient)
A proficient alchemist in Varenhold knows the standard compounds for Lux energy detection, residual ritual-site analysis, and the specific interaction between Ashfen reagents and twilight atmospheric chemistry. This is knowledge developed nowhere else in the Reaches. Spire-trained alchemists carry it as a professional marker; it is worth more outside Varenhold than inside.
Investigation +5
The alchemical equipment at the Spire Quarter apothecary is the most complete in the region, but it has been calibrated for the Spire’s theoretical priorities. A careful observer working there notices that certain research lines are well-supplied and others are not, and that the pattern of well-supplied versus undersupplied research does not obviously follow the merit of the work.
Arcana (DC 14, examining residual lux particulate near the Primer Stones)
The residual Lux energy near the Ashring’s Primer Stones is not decaying at the rate the Spire’s public models predict. A proficient alchemist who collects a sample and analyses it can detect the discrepancy. The energy is being sustained by something. The Spire’s public models assume passive decay from the ritual’s failure. They may be wrong about the mechanism.
14.3.4 Smithing
The Ironbell forge in the Ashfen Gate district has been operating for eighty years. It survived the Night of the Ritual without damage — the forge master at the time, a woman named Osa Bract, was reportedly the first person in Varenhold to light her forge the morning after the twilight began, on the grounds that iron doesn’t particularly care what the sky is doing. Her granddaughter Henna runs it now.
Smithing in Varenhold has shifted over fifty years. The city’s most in-demand metalwork is structural and precise: forge brackets for amber lanterns, calibration frames for Spire instruments, mounting hardware for ritual-adjacent research. The decorative metalwork that was once the Ironbell’s highest-margin product has essentially died as a market. Varenholders don’t buy iron for beauty. They buy it for things that hold.
14.3.4.1 Materials
| Material | Source | Cost | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graymere iron ingot (per lb) | Holds caravans; Northern Road | 3 writs | Standard metalwork; durable and reliable |
| Amber-tempered alloy (per lb) | Produced at the Ironbell; limited supply | 8 writs | Premium metalwork; slight amber tint; valued for amber lantern components |
| Ritual-grade steel (per lb) | Spire-certified only; restricted | 15 writs | Ritual components; requires Spire authorization to obtain legally |
| Standard iron ingot (per lb) | Any smithy; Outer Ring merchants | 1 writ | Functional metalwork |
| Hardening agents (per batch) | Ironbell supply | 2 writs | Strengthens finished pieces |
| Soldering materials (per batch) | Any metalworker supplier | 5 marks | Precision joins; useful for calibration work |
14.3.4.2 What You Can Make
| Item | DC | Hours | Material Cost | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron lamp bracket | 10 | 2 | 1 writ | Mounting hardware for a standard amber lantern; standard trade item |
| Reinforced lock | 12 | 2 | 2 writs | Increases the DC to pick the lock by 2 |
| Tool repair (any metal tool) | 10 | 1 | 5 marks | Restores a damaged tool to functioning condition |
| Primer Stone mount | 14 | 3 | 4 writs | Holds a Primer Stone stable at a fixed angle; prevents drift during extended fieldwork |
| Amber-tempered lantern frame | 14 | 4 | 10 writs | A premium lantern housing; sells for 20 writs to the Guild, or use it in enhanced lantern crafting |
| Calibration frame | 16 | 5 | 12 writs | Precision instrument housing; worth 20 writs to Spire scholars |
| Signal bell assembly | 12 | 3 | 4 writs | Small bell-and-wire system; silent cord-pull communication across up to 30 ft. |
Partial success (DC −2): Primer Stone mounts at partial success hold the Stone but are not perfectly stable — the Stone may drift 1–2 degrees over 10 minutes. This is a meaningful failure state during certain investigation sequences.
14.3.4.3 Background Activities
- Forge labor (half-day): Working the Ironbell’s production line alongside regular smiths. Earns 5 marks and builds relationship with Henna Bract. Over three downdays, this unlocks preferential pricing on Graymere iron.
- Commission sourcing (1 hour): The Ironbell maintains an ongoing request board — commissions from the Spire, the Guild, and city maintenance. Players who take and complete commissions earn the listed trade value rather than keeping the item.
- Material salvage (1 hour): Stripping iron fittings from a derelict building or broken equipment. DC 10 to yield 1d6 writs of usable scrap.
14.3.4.4 Campaign Integration
The Primer Stone mount (DC 14) connects to Session 4 and the final events of Session 5. The Inversion Circle puzzle requires precise timing and positioning. A player character who crafted mounts in advance — perhaps without fully knowing what they would be used for — finds that earlier downtime work becomes mission-critical. The GM should drop hints about Primer Stone geometry before Session 4 begins.
Craft Knowledge: Smithing
Proficient (Smith’s tools)
A proficient smith working in Varenhold knows that the most in-demand metalwork is structural and precise: lantern brackets, calibration frames, mounting hardware. Decorative ironwork is a dead market. The Ironbell forge’s specialty is amber-tempered alloy, which produces a slightly warm-tinted metal valued for lantern housings. The technique is Henna Bract’s and she does not teach it.
History (proficient)
The Ironbell forge has been operating for eighty years. It survived the Night of the Ritual without damage; the forge master at the time reportedly lit her fire the morning after the twilight began, on the grounds that iron doesn’t care what the sky is doing. Her granddaughter Henna runs it now. The forge is one of the few pre-twilight businesses operating in its original premises under its original family.
Investigation (DC 12, reviewing Ironbell commissions)
The Ironbell’s recent commission board includes several precision components whose specifications do not match standard lantern hardware. The dimensions are consistent with ritual circle anchoring brackets, the kind used to fix resonance-chalk circles to stone permanently. The commission name is not one the Compact’s trade registry recognizes.
14.3.5 Jewelcrafting
The three jewelcrafters’ workshops in the Spire Quarter have no signs. Varenhold has no occasion market for rings and pendants — no harvest festivals, no weddings with significant guest lists, no court events requiring status pieces. What it has is demand for precision: gem settings that amplify or focus light, resonance settings that appear in the city’s oldest ritual equipment, calibration chips for Spire research instruments.
The three current masters arrived at similar craft specializations through completely independent paths and discovered, when they finally compared notes, that they had essentially been solving the same problem. They have not fully explained this to themselves. They consider it unsurprising in the way that people consider unsurprising the things they find most difficult to explain.
14.3.5.1 Materials
| Material | Source | Cost | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resonance gem, uncut | Spire Quarter dealers; Holds caravans | 15 writs | Resonance settings; light amplification |
| Holds river-crystal (per piece) | Northern Road caravans | 8 writs | Refraction settings; clean light without amber tint |
| Amber inclusions (per piece) | Amber Workshop Guild waste product | 3 writs | Decorative and functional settings; adds amber-light property to a piece |
| Standard gemstone, uncut | Any jeweler supply | 4–10 writs | Decorative work; limited functional use |
| Precision wire, gold-alloy (per spool) | Outer Ring merchant | 5 writs | High-quality setting mounts |
| Jeweler’s grade adhesive | Spire Quarter apothecary | 1 writ | Bonding for delicate settings |
14.3.5.2 What You Can Make
| Item | DC | Hours | Material Cost | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard gem setting | 12 | 2 | 4 writs | Mounts a gem in jewelry or equipment; cosmetic |
| Amber inclusion brooch | 12 | 3 | 5 writs | Emits faint amber warmth; recognized social value in Varenhold; worth 10–15 writs in the Outer Ring |
| Light-refraction lens | 14 | 4 | 10 writs | Focuses an amber lantern into a 10 ft. directed cone; doubles effective range in that direction |
| Resonance gem setting | 16 | 4 | 20 writs | Amplifies a Resonance Rod by 50%; extends its effective range by 10 ft. |
| Crystal calibration chip | 16 | 5 | 15 writs | Spire-quality instrument component; worth 25 writs to Spire scholars |
| Amber focus amulet | 18 | 6 | 30 writs | Advantage on checks to read or identify ritual-adjacent objects in amber light |
Partial success (DC −2): Resonance gem settings at partial success amplify the Rod by 25% rather than 50%. Light-refraction lenses at partial success create a 5 ft. cone rather than 10 ft.
14.3.5.3 Background Activities
- Workshop apprenticeship (half-day): Assisting one of the Spire Quarter masters with their current project. DC 12 Dexterity (Jeweler’s tools) to contribute meaningfully. Success: the master answers one question about the Spire’s gem research or the history of resonance settings in Varenhold.
- Gem sourcing at the Gate (1 hour): Meeting Holds caravan arrivals at the Ashfen Gate. DC 13 Persuasion or DC 14 Investigation to find quality river-crystal at base price rather than the marked-up Spire Quarter rate.
- Repair and regrind (1 hour): Restoring a chipped or poorly-set gem. DC 12 Dexterity (Jeweler’s tools). Success: the item regains its listed properties. Failure: the gem chips further and loses 50% of its trade value.
14.3.5.4 Campaign Integration
The resonance gem setting (DC 16) is directly relevant to Session 3’s investigation puzzle. The Resonance Rods function without a gem setting, but a set rod has a wider effective range — mechanically meaningful in the puzzle’s spatial constraints. A character who built one before Session 3 has a tool they made, not a tool they were handed.
Craft Knowledge: Jewelcrafting
Proficient (Jeweler’s tools)
A proficient jewelcrafter in Varenhold knows the difference between pre-twilight clear glass and the warmer, amber-tinted glass produced since, and can use both decoratively. The city’s current luxury market favors practical elegance: a well-made amber-set brooch that also holds a small reserve of lamp oil is more interesting to Varenholders than one that only catches light.
History (proficient)
Varenhold’s amber inlay craft began in the lampworks, but the jewelcrafting guilds picked up the technique within a decade. Pre-twilight jewelry from Varenhold referenced the sun: bright, golden, decorative. Post-twilight Varenhold jewelry uses amber’s warmth differently: as something precious specifically because it approximates the sun’s color, not as decorative shorthand for wealth. The shift in intention is visible to anyone who knows what to look for.
Investigation (DC 12, Spire Quarter jewelry workshops)
Several Spire Quarter workshops have received unusual commissions in the past year: amber pieces with specific geometric inlay patterns, consistent across different workshops, placed by different buyers. The buyers pay above market and do not negotiate. The patterns are not decorative standards. A player who sketches the pattern and shows it to anyone with Arcana proficiency will recognize it as a simplified resonance diagram.
14.4 Background Knowledge
Your character’s background shapes what they already know when the campaign begins. The table below shows what each D&D background unlocks automatically — no skill check required, because this is knowledge your character has from lived experience, not study.
This is informed knowledge: deeper than common public knowledge, but not requiring faction trust or dangerous investigation. When a topic from your background comes up at the table, you can expect your character to have more to say than “I’ve heard of that.”
| Background | What You Know Without Rolling |
|---|---|
| Acolyte | The Auris schism’s doctrinal arguments (the Penitents vs. the Wounded); the other five gods’ clerical positions on the twilight; the High Penitent’s historical involvement with the ritual |
| Charlatan | Each major faction’s public reputation and where it diverges from their actual behavior; how to locate black market contacts in the Lowmark and Ashfen Gate without asking obvious questions |
| Criminal | The Desperate movement’s organizational structure; who leads the movement in the Lowmark; what goods move through the black market and how to access them |
| Folk Hero | The grey sickness in lived terms: what Stage 1 looks like in a community, how Stage 2 changes a family, what it costs month-to-month to keep someone on Lira’s compound; the Lowmark’s daily rhythms |
| Guild Artisan | Varenhold’s trade economy: which guilds are still active, the real situation in the amber workshops (not the official version), the labor relationship between Guild Master Helv Onn and the craftspeople |
| Hermit | Ashfen Clan customs and marsh territories; what grows there and why it matters; the Clan oral tradition’s general reputation among Varenholders (dismissed) versus its actual accuracy (more than most assume) |
| Noble | City Council procedure in detail: how audiences are granted, how votes are organized, which councillors hold which positions publicly, the Chancellor’s stated neutrality versus the Council’s internal disagreements |
| Outlander | The five neighboring powers’ geography and general character; which roads are currently active and who uses them; what the Graymere Holds and Dusk Parishes look like from the outside |
| Sage | The Spire’s three public scholarly theories about the twilight; Corven Ash’s official biography and the official history of the ritual; what’s available in the public Archive versus the restricted sections |
| Sailor / Merchant | Trade route details: which roads carry what goods, how frequently, who runs them; Arveth Compact pricing relative to Varenhold; writ exchange rates with outside currency; who to talk to about caravan passage |
If your background is not on this list, work with your GM to determine what your background plausibly covers. The principle is simple: if you lived it, you know it without rolling.