Bedwright

Bedwright

Beds are simple until somebody expects one to survive nobles, adventurers, ritualists, acrobats, enchanted restraints, oversized guests or three people who all insist the frame was already making that noise.

You trained as a Bedwright, a craftsperson specializing in beds, couches, privacy furnishings, reinforced frames and other structures expected to support intimate life without collapsing at an unfortunate moment. Your work taught you far more than joinery. You learned how weight moves through a frame, where stress collects, how hidden compartments are built and why decorative craftsmanship is never a substitute for sound construction.

Work with your GM to determine where you practiced your trade. Perhaps you supplied inns, pleasure houses, noble estates or temples. You may have built discreet custom commissions, repaired spectacular failures nobody wanted discussed, or earned a reputation as the craftsperson summoned when ordinary furniture was simply not sufficient.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Investigation

Tool Proficiencies: Carpenter’s tools

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A set of carpenter’s tools, a folding measuring rod, a coil of strong cord, a pouch of wooden pegs and fittings, a small notebook of frame designs and repair sketches, a keepsake from the first bed or couch you built professionally, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: Load-Bearing Eye

You can quickly assess ordinary beds, furniture, wooden platforms, stairs, railings and similar constructed features for obvious weakness, recent repair, unusual reinforcement or suspicious modification. Given a few minutes of inspection, you can usually tell which portions bear the greatest load and whether a structure appears safe for its intended mundane use.

Your familiarity with frames, panels and joinery also helps you notice crude hidden compartments, removable panels and repairs intended to conceal damage. This does not automatically reveal expertly concealed doors or magical construction, but it gives you a practiced eye for places where woodwork does not quite match.

Carpenters, innkeepers, upholsterers and craftspeople who build or maintain furnishings generally recognize you as a fellow professional. In settled communities, you can usually locate a workshop, obtain ordinary repair materials or learn who produced an unusual piece of furniture.

Suggested Characteristics

Bedwrights tend to become practical about situations other people find embarrassing. Some take enormous pride in invisible craftsmanship, while others develop a dry sense of humor after years of being summoned only after someone has already broken something expensive.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I test unfamiliar furniture with my hand before trusting my full weight to it.
2	A beautiful carving cannot distract me from bad joinery.
3	When something creaks, everyone else hears a noise. I hear a diagnosis.
4	I automatically estimate how many people a platform can safely hold.
5	I carry wedges, cord and spare pegs because eventually somebody will need them.
6	I have repaired enough embarrassing accidents that very little surprises me anymore.
7	I compliment good craftsmanship even when I dislike the person who commissioned it.
8	The phrase “it should hold” makes me visibly uncomfortable.

d6	Ideal
1	Craft. Anything worth building is worth building properly. (Lawful)
2	Safety. Embarrassment is temporary. A broken neck is considerably less so. (Good)
3	Discretion. A client’s unusual commission is nobody else’s business. (Neutral)
4	Ingenuity. Strange requirements produce interesting solutions. (Chaotic)
5	Pride. The finest work often goes unnoticed because nothing goes wrong. (Any)
6	Comfort. Good furniture should support the life being lived upon it. (Good)

d6	Bond
1	My mentor taught me that discretion is part of the craft, not an optional courtesy.
2	I still carry the maker’s mark from the first commission that made my reputation.
3	An innkeeper once sheltered me when I had nowhere else to go, and I repair their furniture whenever I return.
4	Someone stole a set of my custom plans and has been selling dangerous imitations.
5	A client commissioned an extraordinary piece and vanished before it was completed.
6	One spectacular structural failure ruined another craftsperson’s reputation, and I believe they were framed.

d6	Flaw
1	I judge people by the quality of the furniture they keep.
2	A badly repaired frame can distract me from matters of genuine urgency.
3	I sometimes test things that nobody asked me to touch.
4	I am far too confident that anything made of wood can be fixed.
5	I once concealed a mistake because admitting it would have destroyed my reputation.
6	If someone tells me a structure is impossible to reinforce, I become determined to prove them wrong.