Leatherworking

Leatherworking is making armour, bags, quivers, scabbards, tents and other gear out of the skins of slain animals. A leathercrafter also finishes the reinforced armour that smiths start: ring mail, studded, bezainted, scale mail and brigandine. Leatherworking is also the name of the skill that makes you better at it; see the leatherworking skill below.

Getting skins

skin corpse takes the hide off an animal you have killed, and skin all skins every corpse in the room. A knife or dagger in hand gives a better skin, and so does the skinning skill. Anything made from a humanoid's skin is worthless.

A fresh skin is lost when you leave the game. use tanning at <skin> turns it into leather that keeps, and use preserve skin at <skin> treats it so it lasts. A skin too small for the piece you want can be joined to another with combine <skin> and <skin>.

Where to work

• Your own set of leathercrafter's equipment. Degtog's shop below the cave of the Survivalists sells it. setup equipment lays it out wherever you stand, and pack equipment puts it away when you are done. It works any skin you can handle, dragonscale included.
• The leatherworks of a province workshop, west of the forge. Its bench is always set up. You need Trusted standing in the province to craft there, and use bench settles you in for a steadier hand; the better the building, the more the bench helps. A Restored leatherworks takes ordinary hides, an Improved one wyvern and serpent scales as well, and an Advanced one dragonscale. pull <item> from bin has a runner fetch something you keep in the province's storehouse. Earn standing through missions.

Making things

estimate <skin> for <item> tells you whether a skin will do before you spend it. Then:

• make <item> from <skin> makes the piece, for example make vest from wolf skin.
• make 3 <item> from <skin> makes several, and make all <item> from <skin> keeps going while the skins last.
• Add size <cm> to fit the piece to someone of that height.

Besides armour you can make an ammo pouch, arrow case, arrowhead case, bag, cross scabbard, dagger bandolier, design case, huge scabbard, quiver, quiver carrier, sack, shard pouch, sleeping bag, sling, tent, twin scabbard, vial container or wallet. The runed shard pouch and runed arrowhead case want a rare hide and a magical component.

What you make is worth more when the skin is better, and comes out better with a good knife in your pack, practised hands and a well-equipped bench.

Reinforced armour

A smith forges the metal half: rings, studs, bezaint discs, scales or brigandine plates, made for a given race. Keep the component loose in your inventory, and name the armour type when you make the piece:

make ring mail vest from wolf skin using rings

estimate <skin> for <item> using <component> checks the pairing first. The size of the finished piece follows the component, and its worth follows both the hide and the metal. See Forge for the smith's side.

Finishing

• use dyeing at <leather> <colour> colours tanned leather or a finished piece. It needs an Advanced province leatherworks; a lesser one turns you away.
• use tailoring at <item> for <player> refits a piece for someone else. Reinforced pieces need a forge at hand as well.

Dragonscale

The scales of wyverns, serpents and dragons are worked as armour by the Dragonscale Crafters, with make dragonscale <item> from <scale type>. See the Dragonscale crafting guide.

The leatherworking skill

Affiliated stats: dexterity (primary), wisdom (secondary) and strength (tertiary).

The skill works whenever you make something from a skin. Each piece asks for a certain skill before you can make it at all, and more skill makes better work. Craftsmanship and fine hand coordination help as well.

The Leathercrafters, at the Fur Trader's Workshop on the streets of Vaerlon, teach leatherworking with skinning, tanning, dyeing and tailoring. They take profession levels. Denso, the fur trader there, also trains skinning, carving and leatherworking for anyone who meets his terms: train leatherworking from denso, or skinning or carving in its place.

See also

• Crafting, for the other crafts
• Province buildings, for the workshop and its leatherworks
• Forge, for the smith's half of reinforced armour