Short even for a dwarf with a broad chest and shoulders honed by quarrying and years on mountain trails. His braided beard is threaded with thin iron wire and a single faded prayer bead carved from whale-bone tied near the chin. Weathered copper tattoowork crawls from his left temple behind his ear a pilgrimage mark that gleams faintly when wet. He wears a hooded travel cloak that smells faintly of pine resin and old incense. His movement is deliberate and low to the ground with a rocker of the shoulders that belies quick reflexes. Unexpectedly he carries a child-sized wool doll wrapped in a soldier's scrap just beneath his breastplate kept for private rituals.