Master artisans

Introduction

The Master Artisans are the artisan family's gate guild. It is not a main guild — joining it costs you no main-guild choice, and a priest, a warrior or a mage may all carry the artisan title alongside their own calling. What it is instead is the ten-rank hinge between the free apprentice crafts that anyone may learn and the professional guilds where a craft is actually mastered.

The hall teaches craftsmanship as a universal foundation and construction as a working trade, and it teaches no specific craft at all. Ore, lumber, leather and smith-hammers are all represented on its walls; none of them are worked there. What the hall grants is standing, and standing is a key: your rank in Master Artisans is the ceiling on how far you may climb in Professional Smiths, Professional Miners, Professional Refiners and the carpentry school in Atherton. Nobody reaches the top of any of those without first reaching the top here.

Advancement in the hall is by advancement points alone. Profession levels — the ranks earned by actually mining, forging and sawing — will not advance you in Master Artisans.

Where to find it

The complex lies beneath the western side of Vaerlon, entered from the Street of Stone Walls where Main Street forks west, close under the southern city wall. A low covered porch of grey granite is set into the street wall. The lintel above its inner door carries the four marks of the family — a miner's pick, a smith's hammer, a leatherworker's awl and a carpenter's crossed axe-and-saw — and a noticeboard inside the porch lists which halls are taking newcomers. The inner door leads west into the Hall of the Master Artisans.

From the hall itself:

• north — Apprentice Miners
• northeast — Professional Miners
• west — Professional Refiners
• up — Professional Smiths
• down — the artisan supply shop
• east — back to the porch and the street

Halvi, the old coordinator, keeps the hall. The rest of the family sits elsewhere: the Leathercrafters have their own street door in Vaerlon, the Guild of Merchants opens off the adventurers' guild, the carpentry school is in Atherton, and Logger's Hall and the Dragonscale crafters are out in the wilds.

Joining

Master Artisans accepts only those who have already carried an apprentice craft to the end of its training. Any one of these qualifies:

• Apprentice Miners at level 3 — free, one room north of the hall
• Leathercrafters at level 4 — its own hall in Vaerlon
• Logger's Hall at level 5 — out in the wilds, not in this complex

With one of those behind you, use join in the hall. New members are enrolled on the artisans and artisan-events channels and issued the artisan toolkit.

Advancing

The hall's own requirement is craftsmanship, and it rises ten points a rank: 10 for the second rank, 20 for the third, and onward to 90 for the tenth. In exchange each rank trains construction — 15 at the first rank, 100 at the tenth — and adds a learn-by-doing bonus to craftsmanship, worth more in the early ranks than the late ones.

Three titles come with the climb: artisan at rank 1, journeyman artisan at rank 5 and master artisan at rank 10. The guild also carries an elected leader's title.

Inside the hall, list, cost and info show what the next rank asks and what it costs; advance takes it.

What your rank unlocks

The branch guilds check your Master Artisans rank at every step, not just at the door. Skill requirements apply on top of the ranks below — the Master Artisans rank only says how high the door goes.

Branch guild	Branch levels 1–3	4–5	6–7	8–9	10
Professional Smiths	MA 1	MA 3	MA 5	MA 7	MA 10
Professional Miners	MA 1	MA 3	MA 5	—	—
Professional Refiners	MA 1	MA 3	MA 5	—	—
Apprentice Carpenters	MA 1	—	—	—	—

Professional Miners additionally wants Apprentice Miners finished before its first rank. Apprentice Carpenters is the door to the whole Atherton school — Fine Woodworkers, Timber Masters, Toolwrights and Artists of Wood all run through it, and they gate on carpentry skill rather than on further Master Artisans rank. The Dragonscale crafters and the Guild of Merchants belong to the family but are not gated by Master Artisans rank at all.

In the hall

A heavy table under polished glass carries the family's guild tree worked in charcoal and ink — examine the guild tree for the overview, including which halls lie outside the complex. Beside it a weathered plaque lists artisan standings.

In one corner stands a stall of black-lacquered wood with a hand-lettered price list. Examine the stall to see what it offers and what each item costs, then buy <number> to take one. The stall is paid in artisan points rather than coin, and most of its stock may be bought only once.

A worn ladder drops through the floor into the artisan supply shop below. A stone stair climbs the back wall toward the ring of hammer-work in the smiths' hall above.

Toolkit, masteries and artisan points

Every member of the family carries a polished oak artisan's toolkit. Through it:

• guild list — the family's guilds and your standing in each
• guild news — what has changed lately across the artisan guilds
• guild help <branch> — help for one branch
• masteries main — your Master Artisans masteries
• masteries <branch> — masteries in mining, refining, smithing, carpentry or logging
• masteries info <branch> <mastery> — detail on a single mastery

Other guild items can shadow the plain guild news and guild list forms; artisan news and artisan list always reach the toolkit.

Artisan points — the currency of the stall in the hall — are generated by your Artisan Standing mastery.

Retired branches

Three branches were folded into their neighbours and no longer take members. Legacy members keep their recognition; nobody new joins.

• Geologist Corporation — its ore surveying survives as the geology skill inside Professional Miners. The old study room remains as scenery.
• Jewelry Haven — gem cutting, gemmology, jewellery making and engraving all moved into the Professional Smiths' progression. The old hall is now Kagudaz's Fine Jewels, a gem shop in Atherton.
• The metal-specific smith guilds — absorbed into the same Professional Smiths progression. Their Vaerlon smithies survive as working rooms rather than as guilds, and the metal-knowledge skills they used to teach are taught by the Pro Smiths now.

Guild structure

  Free apprentice crafts        Gate guild                 Professional branches

  Apprentice Miners (3) --+
                          |
  Leathercrafters   (4) --+--> +-----------------+ --+--> Professional Smiths    (10)
                          |    | Master Artisans |   |
  Logger's Hall     (5) --+    |  rank 1 .. 10   |   +--> Professional Miners     (6)
                               +-----------------+   |
                                                     +--> Professional Refiners   (6)
                                                     |
                                                     +--> Apprentice Carpenters   (3)
                                                                  |
                                                                  +--> Fine Woodworkers (3)
                                                                  +--> Timber Masters   (3)
                                                                  +--> Toolwrights      (3)
                                                                  +--> Artists of Wood  (3)

  Outside the gate:  Dragonscale crafters (3)  entered through the Leathercrafters
                     Guild of Merchants   (5)  the family's trading hall

Master Artisans

Master Artisans is the coordination guild of the Icesus artisan family - the hall where the craft-professions converge. To join you must first have completed one of the apprentice crafts - Apprentice Miners or Leathercrafters - at its full training, or qualified through Logger's Hall in the wild.

The curriculum here teaches craftsmanship as a universal foundation, but not any specific trade. The branch guilds - Smiths, Carpenters, Loggers, Miners, Refiners, Leathercrafters, Scale Crafters - teach the specific work. To learn a branch, advance enough in Master Artisans to unlock its gate, then join the branch guild itself.

Advancement here is by advancement points only; profession levels will not advance you in this hall.

Maximum level: 10

Bonus Matrix

Bonus Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
stat: dexterity	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
regen: ep	-	1	-	1	-	1	-	1	-	1
stat: strength	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	-
stat: intelligence	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
stat: wisdom	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
stat: constitution	1	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-

Skill Matrix

Skill Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
construction	15	30	45	55	65	75	85	90	95	100
craftsmanship	+10	+10	+10	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5

The artisan family

Every guild below shows up in guild list from the artisan toolkit. The gate column is the Master Artisans rank each one asks for; skill requirements apply on top.

Guild	Levels	Master Artisans gate	Where
Apprentice miners	3	none — free	North of the hall
Leathercrafters	4	none — free	Its own hall in Vaerlon
Logger's Hall	5	none — free	Out in the wilds
Master Artisans	10	one apprentice craft finished	The hall itself
Professional Smiths	10	1 → 3 → 5 → 7 → 10	Up from the hall
Professional miners	6	1 → 3 → 5	Northeast of the hall
Professional refiners	6	1 → 3 → 5	West of the hall
Apprentice carpenters	3	1	Atherton
Fine woodworkers	3	through Apprentice Carpenters	Atherton
Timber masters	3	through Apprentice Carpenters	Atherton
Toolwrights	3	1, and Apprentice Carpenters finished	Atherton
Artists of wood	3	through Apprentice Carpenters	Atherton
Dragonscale crafters	3	none — enters through the Leathercrafters	Out in the wilds
Guild of merchants	5	none	Off the adventurers' guild in Vaerlon