Underfolk kin
Dwarves
Dwarves are the core of underfolk society. They’re hard workers. In many ways, they are industry personified.
Dwarves are obsessive creatures. They love to create. When they discover what craft most interests them, they dedicate themselves completely to it. Their hours are spent perfecting their craft, innovating in their craft, critiquing examples of their craft, and tearing it all down so they can start again and do it right this time. Really, drinking is the only thing that keeps a dwarf steady. It evens them out, mellows them down, lets their mind work on problems that aren’t exclusively about their craftwork.
All this obsessiveness pays off. Dwarf-craft is both practical and beautiful. It is highly sought after, which makes them rich. This is important for dwarves, who know the purpose of life: construct your tomb, because that’s where you’re going to spend the rest of eternity. Woe to the dwarf whose ghost goes to the afterlife bored.
Dwarf talent: Labor Unending
You may mark the Stressed condition to stay awake all night and perform two Camp Actions instead of one; see Camp Actions for details.
Halflings
Halflings are a peaceable people, good-natured, and inclined to be friendly. When dwarves make stuff, it’s the halflings who turn that stuff into gold. Of course, they take a little commission for their trouble. This is generally agreed upon to be a good relationship, because dwarves and humans don’t always see eye to eye. Besides, dwarves would rather be making.
Halflings fill in the gaps in domestic work. Dwarves might not notice that their workshops fill up with old scraps, empty oil cans, and soot, but the halflings certainly do. Halflings like the finer things in life. They like things to be clean, put together, and respectable. Therefore, if something needs cleaning, fixing, and putting-right, halflings often do that job themselves.
If halflings have one failing, it’s their love of creature comforts.
Few people like eating as much as halflings enjoy their auntie’s mushroom pie. Few people like drinking as much as halflings enjoy the pint of bitter from the Bird and Baby Tavern. Few people like smoking as much as halflings enjoy a pipe full of Old Toby from the summer harvest of ‘45.
Halfling talent: Hale and Hearty
If you eat two rations instead of one during step 2 of the Camping Phase, you may charge an uncharged Bond.
Trolls
Trolls were discovered, not born. Sculptors sometimes say that a statue is inside a block of marble, and you just need to scrape away everything that isn’t the statue. Dwarves found this to be true of trolls. As dwarves tunneled, they were surprised to find living beings embedded in the stone or twisted up in old tree roots. They carefully excavated these full-grown trolls, who awoke with no memories and no knowledge of the world. Dwarves carefully taught them speech and cheerfully integrated them into their society. In fact, dwarves think of trolls as little brothers who grew a little too big.
Trolls are gentle giants. Well, most of the time. They do have great stature and incredible physical power, but spend much of their lives dealing with their kith who are smaller and weaker than them. All trolls learned very quickly to check their great strength. When they unleash it, however, the results are devastating—both to their foes and to themselves. Underfolk view trolls who actually unleash their strength very, very dimly. They believe these trolls to be monsters, and there are many infamous examples of cruel trolls that have contributed to this image. A troll who actually embraces his strength is not welcome in proper underfolk society.
Trolls learn gendered roles from the other underfolk, but don’t really have any generative biology. That means trolls cannot reproduce. Every troll that dies means there is one less troll left in the world.
Troll talent: Giant’s Strength
You automatically win contests related to raw strength (arm wrestling, lifting contests, etc.) against other non-troll kin.
Arête
Underfolk gain arête by performing the following deeds:
Crafting something that will last for centuries
Recovering a precious gem or work of fine art and hoarding it as a grave good
Discovering something secret and forgotten
When an underfolk accomplishes all three arête triggers, they gain one of the following talents:
Dwarf arête talent: Iron Beards
Spend a Resolve to automatically succeed on a test of fate related to strength, endurance, or stubbornness.
Halfling arête talent: Underfoot
Spend a Resolve to automatically succeed on a test of fate related to being quiet or subtle.
Troll arête talent: Colossal
Some trolls can perform feats of incredible strength that go beyond what would normally be attempted. Spend a Resolve to pull a portcullis up, smash down a door, push down a supporting column, or perform some other feat of impressive destruction. This talent can’t be used to do additional damage or give an effect, but can be used to change the battlefield during a Challenge.
Dwarven role-playing concepts
Beards. You have one—it’s magnificent. Is it braided? Is it forked? Is it tucked into your belt? Is it hung with bells? Is it looped up into your hair? Is it fiery red? Cold blue? Bright blond? Pure white?
You think magic is perilous stuff. Even when demonstrably helpful, growing to rely on it is dangerous. There's always a way to do something that doesn't require magic.
You believe that you literally can take it with you. Get all the gold you can while you still have hands to grasp it.
Everybody does something in underfolk society. Almost every job is production based. Dwarves have a hard time understanding how humans can have jobs that are “preacher” or “lawyer.” What do they do exactly? (Halflings and trolls wrap their heads around this a little easier.)
Humans think that dwarves represent the best things about Joe Average: honesty, hard work, and heavy drinking. Humans are mostly right about this.
Halfling role-playing concepts
Halflings are anachronistic little British gentlepersons. They enjoy a day at the (rat) races, tea, and little strolls around the countryside.
Halflings like comfort. They're not lazy, as they're sometimes accused of being. They actually go through a lot of trouble to make sure things are nice and respectable.
Halflings are better at talking to humans than dwarves are, and so usually serve as the underfolk's diplomats and brokers to human societies.
Halflings fill in the gaps in underfolk society. Dwarves make the crockery, the silverware, the beer; harvest the mushrooms; and never question who makes the dinner. The answer, of course, is that halflings do.
Finding new and better ways to relax and enjoy themselves is a pursuit of each and every halfling. The new recipe, the better beer, the more inventive pipe—these are things worth questing for.
Troll role-playing concepts
You've spent your whole life as a giant among children. You learned quickly to marshal your incredible strength, lest it cause great harm to your little siblings.
If you are scared of your own might, have any events in your past shaped this fear?
If you regularly call on your strength, how do you deal with the underfolk who are afraid of you?
Underfolk society on a whole likes trolls. They lift heavy rocks, they tear out tough roots, and they get things off of high shelves.
Humans think trolls are monsters. A troll first traveling in human lands after spending their life among the underfolk will have some rude encounters.
You'll never take a mate and have children. You see your dwarf and halfling brothers doing this. How does it make you feel?
When a troll dies, the number of trolls is reduced by one forever. This is something profoundly sad.