The Dwarblin look like a cross between a dwarf and a goblin, and almost everyone takes them for exactly that. They are not. Dwarves and goblins cannot interbreed, because they are made of different stuff, and no child has ever come of the two. The Dwarblin are dwarves, green-skinned and goblin-shaped by another cause entirely. Hated by both peoples they resemble, viewed as "mutt" creatures, too chaotic for dwarves and too sturdy for goblins, they have made a culture of resilience and shrewd business out of their isolation in Watar.
The making
Goblins do not breed the way dwarves do. They come up out of a brood-substrate, a kind of living spawn-bed at the heart of every goblin warren, and that substrate hums with the same accident that first made goblins out of raw magic. A dwarf trading-clan had lived for generations inside the warrens of Watar, packed in close around the brood-beds because that was where the business was, and it sat too long in that hum. When the brood-heart of their warren was struck by a Deoric working the goblins aimed at their own spawn, the resonance jumped the wrong way and caught the resident dwarves. It wrote goblin form onto them between one breath and the next: green skin, small wiry frames, the goblin knack for surviving anything. They kept their dwarven build and their beards, and they bred true. The Dwarblin call it the Greening. It bound them to the very nest-economy that made them, despised by the goblins as substrate-thieves and by dwarves as substrate-tainted, and unable to be anything now but the brokers between two markets that both wish they did not exist.
They are fantastic tradesmen, the bridge between markets that would otherwise never interact. While they lack magical aptitude, their craftsmanship is practical and solid. A Dwarblin-made tool may not be beautiful, but it will never break.
Vitals
- Size: Small
- Height: 3.5-4.5 feet
- Weight: 100-140 pounds
Aspects
- Hated by kin on both sides
- Master of the deal
Game mechanics
Greening-Tough
Passive ability. The Greening rewrote your frame goblin-small without spending your dwarven hardiness, so you carry a dwarf's constitution in a wiry body. You have A2 on saves against poison and disease. You can squeeze through spaces as if you were one size smaller without any movement penalty.
Eye for Value
Passive ability. Your survival depends on trade. You can instantly appraise the value of any item within 10% accuracy by examining it for one round. You have A2 on checks to spot counterfeits, hidden flaws, or magical properties in items. When haggling or negotiating prices, you have A2 on all relevant presence checks.