BVHI Professions

Professions

Seismic Engineer

"I don't read blueprints. I read the mountain."

Role: BVHI's primary field practitioners, survey, construction validation, and active infrastructure maintenance specialists who use Tectonic Harmonics to assess and modify structural environments. The Seismic Engineer is deployed before any significant BVHI project breaks ground, and recalled whenever something the org built starts behaving unexpectedly.

Favored Save	Body, environmental hazard resistance; physical trauma in deep-earth work environments where the hazards are geological
Power Access	Tectonic Harmonics at 1D free, Deep-Read and Song-Smithing are the primary professional Disciplines; Foundation is available and increasingly relevant as BVHI projects face active opposition
Key Talents	Attunement (Wit), Technical (Wit), Structural Integrity Focus, Craft (Body)
Signature Focus	Harmonic Tuning Fork, dense Song-Smithed alloy rod resonating at the Earth's fundamental harmonic layer. +2D to Deep-Read and True-Weight rolls. Extends Contact Requirement for all non-modification Tectonic effects to Near range (Song-Smithing and Foundation's Seismic Slam still require Touch). Standard BVHI issue at journeyman rank; civilian variants available commercially at significant cost. (Full rules: AX.GIL.08.01, Tectonic Harmonics Foci)

Progression Track

Stage	Perk	Source	Recovery
1	Harmonic Attunement	Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Harmonic Support	Always active
2	Infrastructure Override	Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Faction Authority	Long Rest
3	Signature Move (Seismic Slam)	AX.C.09.02, Tactical	Full Rest

Stage 1, Harmonic Attunement: When Stressed, attempt to ground harmonics as a Minor Action rather than a Primary Action. Roll unchanged: Governing Attribute + Resolve vs Threshold 3. On failure, remains Stressed and may not attempt again until next rest. No per-use cap, available whenever Stressed.

Stage 2, Infrastructure Override: As a Primary Action, issue a legally binding halt-order on any BVHI-built or BVHI-maintained infrastructure system, access points, transit tunnels, vault mechanisms, deep-drill operations, power routing, data cable junctions. Suspends operation for up to 48 hours without on-site presence. Resistance requires senior BVHI Clancorp executive authorization, which takes time and is publicly logged. Requires active BVHI standing and auditable grounds. Once per Long Rest.

Stage 3, Signature Move (Seismic Slam): Declare before making a melee attack. If the attack hits, apply Prone in addition to normal damage. The target cannot stand until the start of their next Turn, no Save permitted (the Condition is applied directly, per Signature Move rules). The fiction: a focused Foundation discharge through a strike, channeling Tectonic harmonic force into impact. Effective against targets using cover or fighting in tight spaces where standing is an advantage.

Stage 3 GM note: The Seismic Slam represents a Seismic Engineer who has learned to weaponize Foundation energy through physical strikes, a practical adaptation developed in environments where hostile parties try to prevent BVHI work. Characters who prefer a non-combat Stage 3 expression may substitute Mastery (Attunement) with GM approval, reflecting mastery of Deep-Read over tactical application.

Roleplay Notes

The Seismic Engineer's professional context is environmental control; they are the person in the room who knows whether the room is structurally sound, and that information changes everything. They approach built environments as texts: every material choice, load-bearing decision, and harmonic reinforcement tells them something about who built it, when, and whether it will hold under stress they haven't applied yet.

In fieldwork outside standard BVHI infrastructure, Seismic Engineers are often the character who notices things no one else does, the hairline crack in the corridor that means there's a hollow space behind it, the harmonic wrongness in a wall that means it's been Song-Smithed by someone other than BVHI, the slight change in tone from the Tuning Fork that means something in this floor is not what it appears to be.

The Blunt Force Honesty of Dwarven culture means a Seismic Engineer who assesses a structure as unsound will say so, directly, regardless of who paid for the structure or who is in the room. This is a professional asset and occasionally a professional liability.

Unaffiliated Template

Freelance: A Freelance Seismic Engineer holds independent engineering credentials and is hired for structural assessments that BVHI's institutional interest in the outcome would compromise. They assess honestly because their reputation depends on it, no client wants an engineer who tells them what they want to hear about a structure that subsequently fails. Infrastructure Override is replaced by Provisional Engagement: they work within a client's formal scope of authority on a per-contract basis.

Outcast: A BVHI engineer who underwent The Severing, left or was expelled from their Clancorp. Mechanically identical capability; socially, all BVHI personnel know the Severing is permanent and will not formally work with them. Ghost Credentials may still function on older BVHI infrastructure; Institutional Memory gives them detailed knowledge of BVHI's structural security gaps and construction standards.

Vault-Security Auditor

"You built a good vault. Here's how I got in."

Role: Physical security penetration testers, BVHI's internal capability for adversarially assessing the facilities the org builds and maintains. The Vault-Security Auditor is brought in after construction to find what the construction missed, before an external party does. They know more ways into a BVHI Deep Vault than the engineers who built it, because finding ways in is specifically what they were trained to do.

Favored Save	Speed, physical agility and reaction in security environments; extraction from compromised positions
Power Access	None, penetration testing is physical, technical, and observational; no Harmonic access required or issued
Key Talents	Notice (Wit), Reflexes (Speed), Athletics (Body)
Signature Focus	BVHI Breaker-Kit, a custom BVHI-issued toolkit combining physical bypass equipment (precision drill heads calibrated for BVHI alloy gauges, magnetic resonance picks) with a passive Deep-Read sensor that doesn't require Harmonic Tradition access, it reads Tectonic signatures mechanically rather than magically, at lower fidelity. Passive: +1D on Notice rolls detecting structural anomalies, hidden compartments, and non-standard construction in BVHI-built facilities. Active: as a Primary Action, attempt to identify the construction period and original specifications of a BVHI-built structure section, no Talent roll required, but GM determines information depth based on structure age and modification history.

Progression Track

Stage	Perk	Source	Recovery
1	Exploit Opening	AX.C.09.02, Tactical	Always active
2	Deep Knowledge	AX.C.09.02, Expertise	Scene
3	Last Stand	AX.C.09.02, Defensive	Full Rest

Stage 1, Exploit Opening: When making an attack against a target suffering any Condition (Stunned, Prone, Blinded, Restrained, Frightened, Exhausted, or Severity-based Attribute Condition), gain +1D on the attack roll. Always active, no action cost.

Stage 2, Deep Knowledge: Once per scene, before making a Talent roll, ask the GM one specific, direct question about the task, target, or environment. The GM answers honestly based on professional expertise. Proceeds with the roll normally, informed by the answer.

Stage 3, Last Stand: When the character would be reduced to 0 Health, instead drop to 1 Health and become Stunned until the end of the next Turn. Normal 0-Health rules apply if further damage is taken after that Turn. Once per Full Rest. Does not trigger against Overkill damage.

Roleplay Notes

Vault-Security Auditors are the BVHI's institutionally acknowledged proof that their own facilities are not perfect. This creates an odd cultural position inside the Clancorp structure; they are the people tasked with finding failure, which means they are always finding it, which means their relationship to the Blunt Force Honesty of Dwarven culture is complicated. They deliver bad news as a professional function. Every colleague who built something they tested has a complicated relationship with the audit report.

Outside formal BVHI context, a Vault-Security Auditor is a highly effective infiltrator with specific expertise in the world's most secure facilities. The Breaker-Kit was designed for BVHI construction, but the mechanical bypass principles apply broadly. The ethical line between "penetration tester" and "burglar" is defined entirely by who commissioned the assessment.

Athletics and Reflexes mark this as the most physically capable of the BVHI professions, getting into a Deep Vault requires moving through spaces that weren't designed for human passage, under time pressure, while doing it quietly enough that the security system BVHI also built doesn't notice.

Unaffiliated Template

Mercenary: The natural template for a Vault-Security Auditor outside BVHI. They take clients who need facilities assessed, or accessed. Scope of Engagement at Stage 2 formalizes the per-job authority structure that replaces the Infrastructure Override they can no longer issue. Reputation Ledger at Stage 3 represents a career built on successful penetrations, which is the only credential that matters in this market.

Off-Grid: A Vault-Security Auditor who has taken their skills entirely off-record, no professional registration, no BVHI connection, no data trail. They know BVHI's construction standards intimately. They have no intention of being findable. Grey Space Access at Stage 2 represents the off-network channels they use for clients who cannot afford to be connected to an official security assessment.

Deep-Clancorp Liaison

"The contract runs ninety-nine years. Let's make sure the terms are ones you can live with. Or your grandchildren can."

Role: Professional diplomats who negotiate BVHI's long-horizon infrastructure contracts with governments, other orgs, and private entities. The Liaison translates between Clancorp culture, where a contract is a Debt of Honor and ninety-nine years is a planning horizon, not an abstraction, and every other lineage's relationship to time and obligation.

Favored Save	Wit, negotiation endurance across multi-session proceedings; resist social manipulation and deliberate confusion tactics
Power Access	None, the Liaison's leverage is institutional and relational, not Harmonic
Key Talents	Persuade (Wit), Notice (Wit), Lore (Wit), Clancorp Structure Focus
Signature Focus	Clancorp Ledger-App, a BVHI-proprietary device loaded with the full Clancorp contractual record: every infrastructure contract BVHI has executed in the last three centuries, every Debt of Honor outstanding, every partnership and breach on record. +2D on Lore rolls involving BVHI contract history, partner org relationships, and Clancorp obligation networks. The Ledger-App also functions as a secure direct line to BVHI senior Clancorp authority, the Liaison can establish a verified communication channel to confirm terms, escalate decisions, and invoke BVHI institutional backing in real time. This is not a bluff; parties negotiating with a Liaison know the device represents actual access.

Progression Track

Stage	Perk	Source	Recovery
1	Network Contact	AX.C.09.02, Organizational	Session
2	Infrastructure Override	Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Faction Authority	Long Rest
3	Faction Pull	AX.C.09.02, Organizational	Full Rest

Stage 1, Network Contact: A reliable, named contact within BVHI's Clancorp network or within a partner organization the Liaison regularly works with. Once per session, reach out for one of: specific information the contact plausibly has, a low-level logistical favor, or confirmation of a rumor. The contact has their own interests, they will not take serious personal risk. Defined at character creation.

Stage 2, Infrastructure Override: As a Primary Action, issue a legally binding halt-order on any BVHI-maintained system. For a Liaison, this is a negotiating tool as much as an operational one, the ability to pause infrastructure that a counterparty depends on creates significant pressure without requiring physical confrontation. Suspends operation up to 48 hours. Requires active BVHI standing and auditable grounds. Once per Long Rest.

Stage 3, Faction Pull: Call in a significant BVHI organizational resource, dedicated engineering teams for an urgent infrastructure project, a formal Clancorp Debt of Honor invocation that compels a partner entity to act, a direct intervention from senior Clancorp executive level to change the terms of a political or legal situation, or a demonstration of the Bedrock Protocol's existence to a party that needs to understand what BVHI actually controls. The org notes this was called in. Once per Full Rest.

Stage 3 GM note: A Faction Pull for a Liaison often looks different from a combat-oriented character's. The "significant organizational resource" may be entirely political, a formal Clancorp declaration, a public debt invocation, or a private communication from BVHI leadership that ends a negotiation without requiring further argument. The scale is the same; the expression fits the Liaison's domain.

Roleplay Notes

The Deep-Clancorp Liaison is the most culturally fluent BVHI professional, their job is to translate Clancorp thinking into terms that parties operating on shorter time horizons can understand and agree to. This requires a deep understanding of how other lineages think about time and obligation, and a genuine respect for those differences even while operating from a distinctly Clancorp framework.

The Liaison's Notice investment is professional: they read counterparties the way the Seismic Engineer reads structures. Every negotiation produces behavioral data. By the third meeting, a Liaison knows which offers will land and which will be refused, and they have usually already pre-built the path to the outcome they want.

The Clancorp Ledger-App's direct line to senior BVHI authority is the Liaison's most significant positional asset. Counterparties who understand the BVHI system know that a Liaison who pauses to consult the Ledger is not stalling; they are connecting to the people who can actually authorize what's being discussed.

Unaffiliated Template

Freelance: A Freelance Liaison is an independent cross-org negotiation specialist, hired to facilitate deals between parties where a BVHI-affiliated diplomat would represent a conflict of interest. They retain all the cultural and interpersonal expertise; they lose the direct line to BVHI authority and the Infrastructure Override. Provisional Engagement at Stage 2 formalizes their authority within any specific negotiation on behalf of a client.

Outcast: A Liaison who underwent The Severing. They know every BVHI contract pattern, every partner relationship, and every outstanding Debt of Honor in their region's Clancorp network from the inside. Institutional Memory at Stage 2 is particularly powerful for a character who spent decades managing BVHI's relationship architecture; they know exactly which parties owe what and which obligations the Clancorp would prefer remained unexamined.

Material Fabricator

"The alloy isn't the hard part. Getting the alloy to agree it should be stronger than it is; that's the hard part."

Role: Song-Smith specialists who create BVHI's proprietary harmonically-infused materials, Runic-Steel, density-modified structural alloys, and purpose-encoded components that define BVHI's construction quality advantage. Every "impossible" material in a BVHI structure was produced by a Material Fabricator's Song-Smithing.

Favored Save	Body, physical labor environment; Song-Smithing strain on sustained harmonic output; working in the pressure and heat of deep-earth material processing
Power Access	Tectonic Harmonics at 1D free, Song-Smithing is the primary professional Discipline; Deep-Read supports quality assessment; True-Weight underlies all fabrication work at a conceptual level and becomes explicitly relevant for complex multi-material compositions
Key Talents	Craft (Body), Attunement (Wit), Lore (Wit), Material Science Focus
Signature Focus	Pressurized Arc-Welder, a BVHI-engineered tool that combines physical welding capability with a harmonic resonance emitter calibrated to the Tectonic frequency range. +1D on all Song-Smithing rolls when used in direct material contact. Additionally: when performing Song-Smithing during a formal fabrication session (dedicated workspace, appropriate materials, at least one hour of uninterrupted work), Resonance Stress does not accumulate for the first two Harmonic rolls of that session, the Arc-Welder's regulated harmonic output acts as a partial Friction buffer for controlled professional conditions. This exception does not apply in field conditions.

Progression Track

Stage	Perk	Source	Recovery
1	Resonance Read	Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Harmonic Support	Short Rest
2	Backlash Buffer	Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Harmonic Support	Long Rest
3	Mastery (Attunement)	AX.C.09.02, Expertise	Full Rest

Stage 1, Resonance Read: As a Free Action, roll Wit + Attunement vs Threshold 2. Detect whether any Harmonic Tradition was used within Near range in the last 24 hours. On 3+ successes: identify which Tradition. On 5+ successes: approximate intensity. For a Material Fabricator, this is quality-assurance capability, detecting whether a material or structure has been harmonically altered, and by what. Dead Zones increase Threshold to 4. Once per Short Rest.

Stage 2, Backlash Buffer: When Backlash triggers while Stressed, spend Reaction to reduce severity by one step (Severe→Moderate, Moderate→Minor, Minor→negated) before the effect resolves. Must be declared before GM describes the Backlash. Does not apply to Kinetic Modifier Backlash. Once per Long Rest.

Stage 3, Mastery (Attunement): Once per Full Rest, after making a roll using Attunement, reroll any dice in the pool showing 1, 2, or 3. Keep new results. Wild Die may be rerolled this way. For a Material Fabricator, this most often applies to Tectonic Harmonics rolls (governed by Attunement if taken as the non-default governing Attribute, or directly as an Attunement check for material assessment and quality work).

Stage 3 note: The default Tectonic Harmonics governing Attribute is Body. If the Material Fabricator governs their Tradition with Body rather than Attunement, Mastery should be taken on Craft (Body) instead, reflecting mastery of the physical fabrication skill that pairs with the Harmonic capability. Either expression is valid; the choice should be made at character creation.

Roleplay Notes

Song-Smithing at professional fabrication scale is labor, not performance. The Fabricator's relationship with materials is physical and long, hours of sustained contact, sustained resonance, sustained concentration. Their Craft investment represents both the technical metalworking skill and the physical conditioning that sustained Song-Smithing requires. Senior Fabricators often have very specific physical tells, habitual low humming, a tendency to tap surfaces with a knuckle as a passive Deep-Read check, particular sensitivity to temperature gradients in metals.

The Arc-Welder's controlled-session Friction exception changes the professional calculus significantly: two rolls without Stress accumulation means a Fabricator working in their element can produce two significant Song-Smithing effects before the Friction system begins degrading their output. Field Song-Smithing, quick structural repair under fire, emergency material modification on a job site that's actively failing, carries full Friction risk.

The materials a Fabricator can produce are setting-altering if taken seriously. Density-modified structural elements that are lighter than they should be. Self-healing alloys for critical infrastructure. Tectonic-resonanced stone that pings harmonic signatures for decades. The Song-Smith who originally fabricated most of the world's permanent infrastructure is one of the most powerful figures in BVHI's institutional history, and the Fabricators working today are building on that legacy.

Unaffiliated Template

Freelance: The most common unaffiliated expression for a Fabricator. They hold independent Song-Smith credentials and take commissions for materials that clients need without BVHI's institutional involvement, custom alloys for non-standard applications, materials for projects BVHI has declined to bid on, or fabrication work for clients in Halfling Burrow-States where BVHI has no standing. Open Market Standing at Stage 1 reflects independent professional credentials that the specialty materials market recognizes.

Outcast: A Fabricator who underwent The Severing has something extremely valuable and extremely dangerous: they know exactly how BVHI's proprietary alloys are produced. Ghost Credentials may still access BVHI materials supply chains. Institutional Memory includes knowledge of specific Song-Smithing techniques the Clancorp considers trade secrets.

Sub-Terran Operator

"It's not a machine. It's a location that moves."

Role: Pilots and operators of BVHI's city-scale underground excavation equipment, the Drill-Rigs and accompanying heavy exosuit systems that make tectonic-grade tunneling possible. The Sub-Terran Operator is the person inside the machine that breaks through the Earth's mantle.

Favored Save	Body, equipment failure under geological pressure; physical trauma when deep-earth environments assert themselves against the machinery keeping them at bay
Power Access	None, Sub-Terran Operators are equipment specialists; Harmonic support for the rig comes from the Seismic Engineers working alongside them
Key Talents	Pilot (Speed), Notice (Wit), Fortitude (Body)
Signature Focus	Heavy Drill-Rig / Exosuit, two linked tools representing different operational modes. The Drill-Rig is the primary operational environment: a city-block-scale excavation machine that the Operator pilots from an internal control station. As long as the Rig is functional, the Operator commands an environment, attacking the Operator directly requires getting through or around the Rig first. The Exosuit is the mobile extension: a heavy-frame personal suit rated for tectonic pressure and extreme temperature, providing +2 Armor and allowing operation in environments that would kill an unprotected person. The Exosuit is available when the Operator is outside the Rig. Each piece has its own Focus bonus: Rig operations gain +2D on all Pilot rolls when operating within the Rig's designed parameters; Exosuit provides the Armor bonus and treats extreme geological environments (pressure, temperature, toxic atmosphere) as standard operating conditions.

Progression Track

Stage	Perk	Source	Recovery
1	Steady Under Fire	AX.C.09.02, Defensive	Scene
2	Second Wind	AX.C.09.02, Recovery	Long Rest
3	Last Stand	AX.C.09.02, Defensive	Full Rest

Stage 1, Steady Under Fire: Ignore the first instance of Disadvantage imposed each scene, from any source (Conditions, environmental, opposed effects). The Disadvantage is not applied on that first instance; subsequent instances apply normally. For a Sub-Terran Operator, this often represents the Operator's trained ability to maintain operational focus through equipment stress, environmental hazard, and the specific cognitive pressure of managing a Rig that is actively failing.

Stage 2, Second Wind: As a Minor Action during combat or high-stress operation, recover 2D6 Health immediately. Does not require a rest; may be used while in initiative order. Once per Long Rest.

Stage 3, Last Stand: When the character would be reduced to 0 Health, instead drop to 1 Health and become Stunned until the end of the next Turn. Normal 0-Health rules apply if further damage is taken after that Turn. Once per Full Rest. Does not trigger against Overkill damage. For a Sub-Terran Operator, the fiction is the trained response that keeps a pilot functioning through catastrophic equipment failure, the operational conditioning that keeps hands on controls when the rational response would be to let go.

Roleplay Notes

Sub-Terran Operators experience scale differently than other professionals. Their working environment is geological, features measured in kilometers, timelines measured in years, problems that require continent-level thinking to solve. Surface-scale concerns, buildings, city blocks, individual people, register as small in a way that takes active recalibration. A character who pilots equipment that reshapes tectonic plates has a particular relationship to urgency.

The Operator's Fortitude investment is not optimism; it is the professional recognition that deep-earth operations kill people, and the only effective response to that fact is maintaining physical conditioning that gives you time to solve the problem before it solves you. Stories about Operators who were pulled out of collapsed Rig cabins after forty-eight hours are part of the oral tradition of every BVHI Clancorp.

The Exosuit is the Operator outside their machine, still formidably equipped, still physically durable, but still a person, not a mobile environment. Operators in Exosuit are more agile than their Rig role implies and considerably tougher than they look. The +2 Armor means they shrug off things that would hospitalize most characters without special comment.

Unaffiliated Template

Mercenary: A Sub-Terran Operator with their own Exosuit and portable drill capability, taking contracts for whoever needs deep-earth access or heavy industrial work. BVHI's Clancorp structure doesn't accommodate independent Rig ownership, a Mercenary Operator is most likely working with scaled-down equipment compared to the full Drill-Rig, or managing contracted access to Rig capability through a subcontract chain. Scope of Engagement at Stage 2 formalizes their per-contract authority.

Outcast: An Operator who underwent The Severing retains their skill and their Exosuit (personal equipment belongs to the individual; the Rig belongs to the Clancorp). Ghost Credentials on older BVHI systems may still grant Rig access in unmaintained tunnels or legacy facilities. Institutional Memory covers the operational parameters of specific BVHI tunnel networks they worked in, including the maintenance schedules, known fault lines, and undocumented structural features that every long-tenure Operator accumulates.