HoMA/Dwarf

Average Height: 3'6" - 5' Average Weight: 95 - 150 lbs Starting HP: 7 Speed: Speed Vision: Low Light Vision Languages: Common + Dwarven Racial Skill Architectural Lore Level 1 Benefit Rhythm in the Earth (+2 to saves against Prone, Unstable, and Dazed) Level 2 Benefit Dwarven Courage (Once per day you may regain a quarter of your hitpoints as a free action) Level 5 Benefit Stonechorus (+2 to all physical defenses) Level 10 Benefit Voice of the Mountain (Once per day you may withstand any hit that would otherwise kill you. You are left at 1 hp after using this ability)

The Dwarves of the world are renowned by other cultures for the magnificent things they build, the dwarven mountain halls with their vast sculpted pillars, the great dams that hold back lakes and allow the mining and excavation of priceless gems and minerals from the seemingly worthless lands they inhabit. Being in a mountain hall is indeed marvelous, a rhythm of hammers and tools being worked fills the air, and the simple hauling songs everyone seems to sing harmonize gloriously.

Being a mountain hall for too long though will drive most humans mad, the songs of society are not chipper work tunes, but detailed instructions for how to create the crafts they work on. There is no deviation from the songs you know, each Mountain Hall is carved in the same patterns and shapes as the one before it, each goblet near identical to the first one sung about. A dwarf's place in life is determined from birth and he sings the songs his father sang to do his business, and he will sing these songs to his child till the day he dies.

Dwarf clans form variations on the songs, but no individual dwarf sings his song differently, at least not for long. Dwarven adventurers are dwarves who cannot, or will not, sing the songs of their fathers. Perhaps they questioned the method, or dared suggest that something be made differently than the song of the clan, perhaps they killed someone or caused disharmony in the hall. The punishment is always the same, Exile, with enough supplies for a weeks travel. Most dwarves are reluctant to talk about the mountain homes, and most humans never really care to ask.