I think many of the portraits are just unfinished/placeholders. Agreed the crafting inventory not being shared is quite annoying, but I assume crafting as a skill will return (quite surprised if it doesn't.) Traits just add dialog options I think.
I quite like the idea of a compressed air barrel. I don't think it needs to be a "mini-barrel" or can or whatever. It's a funny concept for a medieval fantasy setting, but I think it could be one of those tongue-in-cheek kind of things that isn't too over the top as long as its explained. Like air mages compress air into barrels for later use, or for blacksmiths to power their furnaces, or whatever. I think it could be something that actually clears the nearby area of surfaces and clouds. Kind of a cool idea to make it reduce status durations too, but that'd be a bit weird, except maybe blowing out fire. Thematically, it could have a knockdown effect if you're close enough to it, but that's quite powerful.
I would expect these barrels to be quite rare, not lying around everywhere like oil barrels, and probably made of something besides wood.
