Dwarves of the Blue Mountains
1 - Searching for Roots
You prefer to spend your time outside, to study the marvelous architectural achievements of your forefathers, rather than inside the workshop of your mansion, where you should learn the ways of hammer and forge. Unfortunately, many of your ancestors' greater works lie deep under the earth, or have been ground to dust in an ancient upheaval that changed the face of the world. This means that to study them you must first find them, something that often takes you many miles away from home, and for many long days.
♦ STRENGTH 6, HEART 2, WITS 6
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Explore
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Bold, Determined
2 - Wandering Blacksmith
There's no path through the Blue Mountains and the Grey you haven't trod with your trust boots, and there's no inn you haven't visited. You often paid for drinks and lodging with your work -- every village or homestead in Eriador has a broken mill wheel, or a pony to shoe anew. From every customer you have satisfied in the four corners of the land you have picked up a great many proverbs and rhymes, words of wisdom that will prove useful in these days of uncertainty.
♦ STRENGTH 7, HEART 2, WITS 5
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Riddle
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Eager, Proud
3 - Keeper of the Anvil Song
For you, the forges beneath the Blue Mountains are more than just places of crafting. There, the ringing of hammer against anvil and the hiss of cooling metal entwine with voices lifted to sing the deeds of your ancestors. You have heard ballads suited to a feast-hall, dirges for days of mourning, and marching songs to bolster the heart of a warrior and prepare him for the shedding of blood. You dream of the day when those songs won't be sung only to celebrate the past, and you hope you will be the one to bring them to the Iron Hills and Erebor itself.
♦ STRENGTH 7, HEART 3, WITS 4
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Song
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Fierce, Lordly
4 - Librarian
The innermost halls of your mansion in the Blue Mountains guard a store of lore that can be accessed thanks only to the patient work of Dwarves like you. You spend days on end, bent over ancient rolls of parchment and graven tablets, looking for the clues that will allow you to unlock the obscure ciphers your ancestors used to guard their most precious secrets. Sometimes, your task is to locate the entrance to forgotten chambers, whose existence is substantiated only by pages of half-burnt books and records.
♦ STRENGTH 5, HEART 4, WITS 5
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Scan
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Cautious, Steadfast
5 - Eriador Trader
For over a century your father has traded with the Folk of the Shire and the Men of Bree. Trinkets and treasures of his own making decorate the Hobbit-holes of well-to-do families of Hobbiton and wealthier residents of Bree, and now that the Lonely Mountain has been reclaimed, you hope to travel farther even than he did.
♦ STRENGTH 6, HEART 3, WITS 5
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Travel
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Cunning, Hardy
6 - Provider
In the Blue Mountains, your folk never profited from the proximity of a thriving community like Dale or Esgaroth, and had always to rely on far traders and local hunters and farmers.
Your father and his father before him were accounted among the best hunters of their time, and their knowledge and skill has become your birthright. The way of the hunter is a solitary one, and is as vital to a community as that of the warrior. For when a huntsman fails, his whole family suffers.
♦ STRENGTH 6, HEART 4, WITS 4
♦ FAVOURED SKILL: Hunting
♦ DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Robust, Suspicious