The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 137: The First of the Mountain Dwarves Stats

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The First of the Mountain Dwarves Stats DRAKK - Structural Prophet Maintenance Lead. Stone-Sense Architect. First Dwarf Bound. Drakk worked bad stone for forty years, compensating for weakness instead of fixing it. The Gem stripped away every bad habit and replaced them with perfect understanding. Now he feels load paths like breathing, knows where stone will fail before it complains, and moves through the mountain like reading a map written in pressure and time. ATTRIBUTES: MIGHT 8 - Decades of maintenance work, strong but not exceptional GRACE 6 - Methodical, careful movements learned from working unstable supports FORCE 4 - Steady will, survivor's pragmatism, accepts hard truths without breaking WILL 7 - Enhanced clarity, sees structural integrity intuitively, load-bearing awareness HUNGER 3 - Low maintenance needs, the work itself feeds him now PRESENCE 5 - Quiet authority from experience, others defer without argument Traits: Load Path Sight : Sees stress lines, weight distribution, failure points before they manifest. Can read a room's structural integrity at a glance. Stone-Grain Skin : Faint texture like polished stone, subtle but unmistakable Alignment Correction : Spine and posture permanently corrected, no longer compensates for weakness Pressure Intuition : Feels changes in mountain stability, knows when something shifts Bond : Bound through work (hammer), stone (deep mountain rock), and failure (collapsed timber). Loyal through pragmatic acceptance - Yara gave him what the mountain never did. HURN - The Bearing Wall Load-Bearer. Stone-Backed. Immovable Object. Hurn caught his first cave-in and lived. Caught twelve more after that. His body learned to hold weight that should have killed him. The Gem took that instinct and made it architectural. Now he's a living support beam - stone runs through his spine, electricity courses through his nerves, and his body distributes loads that would crush normal dwarves. ATTRIBUTES: MIGHT 12 - Exceptional bearing strength, can hold structural loads GRACE 4 - Slow, deliberate, built for endurance not speed FORCE 6 - Reinforced will, stubborn as mountain bedrock WILL 8 - Enhanced by ring's electricity, sparks of quick calculation during crisis HUNGER 4 - Requires more fuel for mass and power, but stable PRESENCE 6 - Solid, reliable, people trust him to hold things up Traits: Mountain Slab Integration : Stone embedded in spine and shoulders, redistributes weight through body Electric Nerves : Ring's power integrated into nervous system, sparks during extreme effort Unstoppable Stance : Once set, incredibly difficult to move or knock down Pressure Distribution : Body automatically shifts to bear loads efficiently Failure Resistance : Can hold collapsing structures long enough for evacuation Bond : Bound through endurance (leather strap from first cave-in), resistance (cracked brace), and power (enchanted ring). Loyal through respect - Yara made him what he always tried to be. BELRI - The Mountain's Ear Acoustic Savant. Resonance Reader. Living Seismograph. Belri always heard too much - stone settling, distant footsteps, vibrations that made his head ache. The mountain spoke and he couldn't understand the language. The Gem gave him grammar. Now he hears everything the mountain carries but can filter, focus, and interpret. He knows what moves where it shouldn't, what breaks before it falls, what approaches before it arrives. ATTRIBUTES: MIGHT 5 - Youngest, least physically developed GRACE 7 - Quick, nervous energy, moves carefully to avoid overwhelming input FORCE 5 - Fragile but learning structure, focus helps him cope WILL 11 - EXTREMELY enhanced sensory processing, mountain-scale acoustic awareness HUNGER 3 - Low physical needs, most energy goes to processing input PRESENCE 4 - Quiet, easy to overlook, prefers to listen rather than speak Traits: Selective Acoustic Awareness : Hears vibrations throughout the mountain, can filter and focus at will Resonance Threading : Stone integra