It takes many skilled workers to build a keep or a tower or a theater. Commonly, one of these skilled laborers, impressed with the lord’s demeanor, will offer to serve the lord permanently, becoming a member of their retinue, living in the stronghold or the surrounding village after the rest of the workers return to their towns. Each artisan in the lord’s service either grants the lord some benefit or improves the stronghold in some way.
Where Do Artisan Followers Come From?
Newly minted regents inspire people, but they also present an opportunity for other people to fulfill heretofore thwarted ambition. The mason who sets up shop in a fighter’s keep was probably one of the folks who helped build it. It takes several masons to build or restore a keep. One of them naturally assumed a leadership position over the others, was trusted by the nascent lord, and stayed on when the project was done. The mason probably has family in a nearby town.
Some of them might move to the village that slowly accumulates around the lord’s keep. A tailor who joins a lord in their wilderness stronghold may be a local townsperson seeking greater glory, the opportunity to serve a baron or a count! Or they may be someone from the nearest big city who’s tired of serving folks who don’t appreciate their handiwork, hearing tell of a newly landed noble building a keep, and decides it is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a little fish in the great wide ocean.
The tailor from the big city brings with them all the prejudices of civilization, but also all the knowledge that comes with it, knowledge of court intrigues and fashion.
| Artisan Shop Improvement Table |
|
| Level |
Cost |
| 1st |
- |
| 2nd |
1,000 GP |
| 3rd |
1,500 GP |
| 4th |
2,000 GP |
| 5th |
2,500 GP |
Your Artisan’s Shop
Most artisans come with their own shop, which they set up for free and which starts at 1st level. You can pay to improve it based on the Artisan Shop Improvement Table. This process takes three months (one season), and you cannot pay more to speed this up. The maximum shop level is 5.
Harvesting Organs to Create Magic Items
If you’ve got a blacksmith, a scribe, or an alchemist waiting back at your stronghold, suddenly the corpses of the creatures you defeat in combat become bags of useful organs! Not just a smelly reminder of your triumph. With some corpses of magical creatures, normal people with no levels in a spellcasting class can craft magic items, because the files are in the computer…er, the magic is in the creature, in its organs. A dragon obviously can’t fly under its own caloric power, that’s ridiculous. It is a magical creature, and by the careful harvesting of its organs, you can distill some of that magic for your own use. In all cases, use the normal rules and requirements for crafting magic items. The artisan follower simply reduces the time and cost. In each case, a spellcaster is needed to imbue the item with the requisite magical power. The caster isn’t using a specific spell, merely the arcane talent and magical knowledge necessary to manifest the item’s ability.
THE ALCHEMY TEST:
Once a creature dies, its organs begin to decay. You must act within minutes of death to harvest anything useful. A monster corpse has four useful components—described below—and each requires an alchemy test to harvest.
An alchemy test combines two ability checks: first an Intelligence (Arcana) check to determine if you know where the organs are and the best way to harvest the component, then a Wisdom (Medicine) check to extract and preserve the component without destroying it in the process. It’s like a mini skill challenge.
The DC of the Intelligence (Arcana) check to locate the organs and remember the best way to extract them equals 8 + the challenge rating of the creature you’re operating on.
The DC of the Wisdom (Medicine) check to perform the surgery and extract enough useful material without destroying it depends on the organ in question and the challenge rating of the creature, as shown in the Alchemy Test table.
A given corpse can only withstand one alchemy test before it’s unusable.
RECIPES:
Crafting a magic item requires a recipe. A sword, +1 isn’t merely a normal weapon with bless cast on it during its forging—it requires special metals. For potions, unique admixtures must be chemically prepared. Scrolls require rare inks. In some cases, the item can only be made under special circumstances, like during a specific phase of the moon.
In all these instances, it’s assumed your follower knows how to procure just enough of these special materials to craft the item in question. How they get these materials is a trade secret, but it typically involves relying on a network of fellow craftsmen they established before joining your employ. Generally we don’t worry too much about which recipes an artisan follower has access to.
Their job is to save you time and money—all the other requirements must be met normally—but the GM could rule that the artisan comes with a handful of recipes and make finding other recipes part of adventuring.
| The Alchemy Test |
|
|
|
| Organ |
Magic Item |
Created By |
Medicine DC |
| Eyes |
Potion of Invisibility to Monsters |
Alchemist |
15 |
| Blood |
Arrows of Monster Slaying |
Blacksmith |
10 + CR |
| Blood |
Sword of Monster Slaying |
Blacksmith |
10 + CR |
| Brains |
Potion of Monster Control |
Alchemist |
12 + CR |
| Heart |
Scroll of Protection from Monster |
Scribe |
12 |
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