Engineering#

The trade of things bigger than one craftsman: carts, wagons, carriages, boats, ships and siege engines. Engineers don't make parts so much as put them together, and they need every other trade to do it.

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

   Carry parts for a week on a work the hall is building, and learn the name of every one.

2. Level20
   Rank 2: Hobbyist

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

   Build a cart that makes it from one town to the next without losing a wheel.

3. Level40
   Rank 3: Apprentice

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

   Build a sled or a boat and take it out yourself.

4. Level60
   Rank 4: Journeyman

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

   Fix a carriage axle on the road with the passengers still waiting inside.

5. Level80
   Rank 5: Master

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

   Raise a catapult or ballista for a town that expects an attack, and be there when it comes.

6. Level100
   Rank 6: Artisan

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

   Build a ship or a trebuchet with parts from four other trades, and get every one of them to deliver on time.

The work#

An engineer builds a work, something too big for one trade to make, from parts other trades make: axles, springs and hubs from blacksmiths, wheels, spokes and shafts from fletchers, seats and benches from carpenters, and cloth and leather for covers. Engineering has no skills of its own. An engineer’s skill is knowing how it all goes together.

Building a work#

Gather every part the work needs, then roll your rank’s craft roll against the work’s DC like any other piece. A miss doesn’t ruin the parts: it costs a day, and you try again tomorrow.

What it makes#

Works#

Parts#

The parts other trades make for a work, at their own DCs.

The guildmaster#

Ludo Kesh builds siege engines for Mandak’s Legion and carriages for the founding families, and he charges the families twice as much. He learned the trade in the lifts and stairwells of Narsis, which he mentions to nobody in Tharsis, because nobody in Tharsis would forgive him for it. He runs the Engineering Post in the Spire Quarter among its drafting tables and gear bins.

Find Ludo Kesh at the Engineering Post in the Spire Quarter of Tharsis. 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#

Engineering gives the other trades nothing they can’t do without. It takes what they make and builds something bigger.

What it takes from them.

Blacksmithing Axles, springs, hubs and the other metal parts a wagon or siege engine is built on. Fire and metal Fletchery Seasoned timber, wheels, spokes and shafts for wagons, carriages and siege engines. Timber Carpentry Driver's seats, benches and the finished woodwork a carriage is judged by. Timber Animal Husbandry Broken teams to pull carts, wagons and carriages. Living things

A good pair

Blacksmithing: 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 engineering fits best. Any class can join any guild.

Mageling Magelings live by knowing how things work, and engineering is the one trade where knowing is most of the job. A natural fit Pickpocket An engineer understands hinges, springs and locks, which a pickpocket finds very useful. Works well Page A page defends walls, and an engineer knows how they fall. 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.

• You carry a folding rule and a stub of chalk, and you sketch on any flat surface you find.
• You know whether a wagon will fit through a gate before you reach it.

What others say#

The carriage that came back

A founding family’s carriage came back from the Mellowdeep causeway without its family, without its driver and without a scratch on it. Ludo Kesh built it, and he says the axle has been swapped for one he didn’t make. Whoever swapped it knew exactly how his carriages are built, and the family wants answers from the man they paid.