Blacksmithing#

The trade of metal worked by hand: weapons, armor, tools and everything else that has to hold. A blacksmith starts by mending other people's work and ends up making pieces a lord will wait a season for.

Ranks and quests#

The guild’s hall sets each rank’s quest. Six ranks has what every rank makes, and making something how the craft roll works.

1. Level0
   Rank 1: Inquirer

   Trash to Shoddy · ×1 worth · 1d6 craft roll

   Scrub the rust off a rack of the hall's practice blades until the forge-elder can see their face in one.

2. Level20
   Rank 2: Hobbyist

   Crude to Inferior · ×1.25 worth · 2d6 craft roll

   Repair a set of armor that came back from a fight, and hand it back to the soldier who wore it.

3. Level40
   Rank 3: Apprentice

   Shoddy to Acceptable · ×1.5 worth · 2+3d6 craft roll

   Rebuild a broken weapon the hall picks out of its scrap pile.

4. Level60
   Rank 4: Journeyman

   Poor to Fine · ×1.75 worth · 4+4d6 craft roll

   Cast a commission for someone who will use it the day it arrives, and be there when they do.

5. Level80
   Rank 5: Master

   Inferior to Flawless · ×2 worth · 5+5d6 craft roll

   Swag a blade that survives the hall's own testing, without losing it to the anvil.

6. Level100
   Rank 6: Artisan

   Adequate to Masterwork · ×3 worth · 6+6d6 craft roll

   Forge a weapon from ore you mined, in a mold you formed, and sharpen it. The hall decides whether it carries your mark.

The work#

A blacksmith learns backwards: mending first, making later. An inquirer can only recondition worn gear back to mint. Repair comes at hobbyist, and rebuild, which brings back even broken gear, at apprentice. Only a journeyman casts new work, a master learns to anneal and swag it into something better than the mold made it, and an artisan can sharpen an edge and form mold from any metal piece they can get their hands on.

Metal comes from ingots, or from salvaging old gear. Salvage loses nothing: a piece that took 15 material breaks down into 15 material of ingots (5 each), components (2) and fragments (1).

Melting the metal#

Load the crucible, inside a forge or atop a hearth, and heat it to the metal’s melting point. Press bellows drives the heat up, fuel fire feeds the coal, and reshape flame rebuilds the fire when the forge can’t reach the heat it used to. The hotter the forge, the faster it eats coal.

Casting the piece#

Cast mold pours the melt into a mold, and it won’t set unless the crucible holds enough metal to fill it. Release mold breaks the mold off the hot piece, and quench cools it in the slack tub. The piece is finished now, but rough.

Forming the finish#

A master takes it further. Anneal heats the piece back up in the forge, and swag works it cold on the anvil, raising its craftsmanship every time it goes well. Every swag shaves off a little metal, and a piece that loses too much is destroyed: not broken, which mends, but gone, fit only for the crucible.

Skills and tools#

ReconditionInquirer

Recondition is used to fix minor problems in items, turning fair or excellent condition items into mint condition.Tools: steel wool

RepairHobbyist

Repair is used to fix major problems in items, turning damaged or mediocre condition items into fair condition items so they can then be reconditioned to mint.Tools: blacksmith hammer, anvil

RebuildApprentice

Rebuild is used to completely overhaul broken or ruined condition items into damaged condition items so they can be repaired and reconditioned back into pristine shape.Tools: tongs, forge, hearth

Press BellowsApprentice

Increases the heat of the hearth or forge by forcing air into it (forge) or upon it (hearth) through a tuyere.Tools: tuyere

Reshape FlameApprentice

Increases the maximum heat potential by assembling a new layer of damp coal around the edge of the hearth or forge.Tools: coal

Fuel FireApprentice

Issues coal into a hearth or forge.Tools: coal

Cast MoldJourneyman

Use a present mold to cast an item of the molds type by pouring the melted material into it.Tools: mold, crucible

Release MoldJourneyman

After the melted metal cools into a solid, releasing a mold clears the hot raw product from the mold making it ready for quenching. The mold is destroyed during the process of releasing the product from the mold.Tools: mold, blacksmith hammer

QuenchJourneyman

Done immediately after releasing a mold quenching dumps the hot raw product into a slack tub so it can be swagged.Tools: tongs, slack tub

AnnealMaster

Annealing increases the heat of the raw product so swagging can occur.Tools: tongs, forge, hearth

SwagMaster

Swagging is cold-working of a material into its desired shape, increasing the outcome quality. Swagging reduces raw products heat.Tools: blacksmith hammer, anvil

SharpenArtisan

Sharpen allows the use of a whetstone or stropping stick upon a slashing or piercing item to make it deal more damage during combat.Tools: whetstone, stropping stick

Form MoldArtisan

Form mold allows the artisan blacksmith use a reference metallic item, sand and a forge to create a mold for which the blacksmith may use later for casting.Tools: sand, forge, item

What it makes#

What a smith makes#

The guildmaster#

Brannoc is a forge-elder on Jewall’s Council of Forges and has turned away more apprentices than most halls ever take in. Every blade that leaves his hands carries his mark, and he has broken more of his own blades than he has sold, because they weren’t good enough to carry it. He came down to Moria when the war ended to help it make plowshares again, and works out of a reopening stall until the city gives him a forge.

Find Brannoc Dunmar at a reopening stall on the Triumphal Plaza in Moria. It’s the guild’s only hall: you join there, and you come back to it for every rank’s quest, inquirer to artisan.

Trades it works with#

What blacksmithing gives the other trades.

Animal Husbandry Horseshoes, and the pritchel and clinch tools to fit them. Living things Engineering Axles, springs, hubs and the other metal parts a wagon or siege engine is built on. Timber Carpentry The metal fittings, frames and hinges furniture is built around. Timber

What it takes from them.

Mining Ingots and blocks, the metal of every weapon and piece of armor a smith makes. Fire and metal Sigildry Sigils for the armor a smith makes, and molds deduced from pieces nobody has a mold for. Fire and metal Alchemy Applicants that put a magical prefix or suffix on a finished blade or piece of armor. Living things

A good pair

Mining: Dig your own ore and smelt your own ingots, and your forge never sits cold waiting on a supplier.

Engineering: Most of a wagon or a siege engine is metal parts, and an engineer who forges them waits on nobody.

Who takes it up#

The classes whose work blacksmithing fits best. Any class can join any guild.

Page A page lives in armor, and a page who can mend it in the field never fights in a dented breastplate. A natural fit Plainsman Plainsmen fight with any weapon, and a smith can make or mend all of them. Works well Headhunter Headhunters wear a blade out faster than anyone, and an artisan's sharpen makes every hit count. Works well Elementalist Elementalists have the arm for the hammer, and they fight close enough to need what it makes. Works well

The guild finder ranks every guild for a class.

How it shows#

None of this changes a roll. It’s how the people around you can tell what you do for a living.

• Burn scars on your forearms, and you check every blade you’re handed for its maker’s mark.
• You can’t walk past a horse without looking at its shoes.

What others say#

The forged mark

Blades with Brannoc Dunmar’s mark are turning up in the hands of the bandits on the Mellowdeep causeway, and every one of them breaks on the second blow. Brannoc never made them, and he wants the forger found before the Council of Forges decides he did. Whoever is copying his mark learned it at his own anvil.