Tipra "Tippy" Stoneblade    There are a number of ways to describe the role that Tippy actually plays in the field force: intelligence officer, espionage agent, undercover operative, and -- put plainly -- spy. She gathers information about the enemy, does some collating and analysis, and provides it to the commander. She spends a lot of time in the field, slipping away unnoticed from the headquarters and popping up again when she has something worth reporting. Her reports are timely, unfailingly accurate, and usually quite useful. To look at Tippy, you'd never imagine her to be a spy -- which she finds a tremendous asset in her business.    Tippy is a young dwarf who was born and raised in the great stronghold of Kharak Kashul. In school, she was an excellent student with an encyclopedic memory. She also was a featured actress in all the school plays. Everyone said she had terrific acting talent and her family expected she'd end up as a star in one of the traveling acting companies or perhaps one of the great theaters in Sorminia. The problem with that scenario was that Tippy didn't want to spend her working life as an actress. She found repeating the same lines over and over to be deadly boring. But she knew it would be a shame to waste her talent, and so was resigned to an acting career. That changed one evening when her parents had a few friends in for dinner.    One of the guests was an old friend of her father. The friend also happened to be the Chief Constable of Kharak. After dinner, Tippy found herself having a long conversation with the nice, elderly dwarf. During the evening he asked about her plans for the future, and she told him about her proposed work in the theater and also confided that she wished she could find some other worthwhile way to make use of her talent. He nodded, seeming to sympathize.

Once in the field, Tippy found that seeming to be a harmless, cute, young dwarvish girl was useful sometimes, but not always. She soon developed several personae -- which she puts on and takes off like a hat -- for use in various situations. These personae, as well as Tippy's memory and analytical ability, have proven just as useful in military intelligence work as in criminal detection, and she's been a valued member of the headquarters elements of three field forces so far.

The picture above shows Tippy in her "street clothes": a typical outfit you might see her wearing around the headquarters. Below, you'll meet Tippy in the various roles she adopts when undercover.

	"Pimina Oldshaft"    Pimina Oldshaft is a clerk employed by a large export firm in Etorlia. She's saved up her money and is now spending her vacation traveling through nearby lands. She's quick to tell you that she is convinced that travel is broadening and educational. However, she's obviously uncomfortable in unfamiliar cultures and nervous about everything from getting sick from strange food to being attacked by strange men. As she peers warily through her thick-lensed spectacles and clutches her purse tightly in her lap, she's obviously not someone you'd need to be concerned about.
	"Tufirin 'Tuffy' Axebender"    Tufirin Axebender is a freelance convoy guard who hires on as a part of the security force for convoys traveling through dangerous territory. Like most people in that line of work, she often finds herself between jobs, which provides a perfect excuse for hanging around areas of interest and swapping stories with other travelers.
	"Oojama Hork"    Oojama Hork is a young dwarf from the wild and unpleasant country called Erobok, in the northeastern part of the continent. The Eroboki are considered barbaric (and not overly bright) by most people on the continent. Very few of them speak Common. Oojama doesn't. She's wandering the continent and Weiland on her "wandering time": a period of a few months young Eroboki traditionally spend "seeing the world". Tippy will tell you that it's amazing how careless people are with what they say around someone when they think the person doesn't speak their language.
	"Kitsura 'Kitsy' Goodmine"    Kitsy Goodmine is an itinerant dancer, traveling from town to town, performing for a few days in taverns for a cut of the tavernkeeper's take. She wears a very revealing costume featuring a tiny loincloth that shows off the cute dwarvish pot belly that so many dwarven males -- and males of other sub-races -- find so appealing. Like many girls in her line of work, Kitsy is quite willing to supplement her income by providing some "after-hours entertainment" for drooling males. Curiously, though, she never seems to leave the tavern with any of the men she's flirted with. She always seems to have a prior engagement with some other, unidentified fellow. Tippy never ceases to be amazed at the amount of information a few tankards of ale and a wiggle of a cute behind can produce.
	"Princess Palmietta Sevinsrong Delitenia of Lower Quensiel"    Princess Palmietta is a princess of Alanda Varai, stripped of her lands and exiled from the kingdom after becoming involved in a plot to depose the reigning king. She's bitter and set on recovering her property — and exacting a bit of revenge while she's at it. She's wandering through Weiland and the neighboring lands on the continent, looking for people to help her in her quest. Naturally, she spends a lot of time seeking out and trying to deal with local dissidents, who are excellent sources of all sorts of information.
	"Cholin Umbermane"    Cholin is a former soldier from Naisac, placed on half-pay after losing an eye in a barroom brawl. She's bitterly resentful of being "shoved on a shelf" and open to joining up with any nefarious enterprise. She spends her days wandering the countryside looking for trouble and her nights swilling down cheap ale in taverns, where she can always find some other disgruntled soul to swap tales of woe. In the taverns, she alternates between friendly joviality and dark depression, obviously not terribly sane.
	"—————"    When deception fails, there's sometimes nothing left but to prowl around in the bushes, crawl up a few drainpipes and pry open a window or two. Tippy's perfectly capable of doing that sort of thing, and here you see her dressed for it.

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