The current idea I am working with for my character is a Dwarf-blooded Verditius that, despite only having the minor version of Faerie Blood, I intend to play in somewhat stereotypical LOTR style. In particular, he dreams of building great mines and structures--think the Lonely Mountain and you're on the right track--as well as incredible magical items (he is after all Verditius).
The current Virtue loadout is as follows (one will have to get dropped):
Major Magical Focus (stone)
Affinity with Terram
Faerie Blood (Dwarf)
Puissant Magic Theory
Puissant Stonemason
Puissant Blacksmith
Apt Student
Book Learner
Inventive Genius
Unfortunately currently I'm running into confusion about necessary crafting and profession abilities. Stonemasonry appears to be, canonically, a crafting ability, though the description of the Mason's guild in C&G leaves me with the impression that the only thing masons work primarily with large stone blocks, which seems to be less than ideal for a Verditius. So, would stonemasonry apply to, say, anything involving working with stone (per Core definition of Craft ability)? Or should I take something like Craft (Stone-carving) instead?
Then there's the issue of how to actually build things. Since he would likely be using magic to assist in his construction/mining efforts, rather than to accomplish them outright, it seems like he might need more than just Finesse, he might need either Craft (stonemason again) or a Profession (architect? miner?) to design his mines and buildings ahead of time.
Honestly, my hope is to be able to accomplish my character's goals with Blacksmith and Stonemason. But I am not sure that that's reasonable. Any thoughts?
Profession: Miner might also be worth investing in alongside Craft: Stonemason. This covers everything from how to make tunnels not collapse to knowing how to 'read' the rock to avoid tunnelling into an aquifer or similar, along with things like ventilation.
Trying to be both a blacksmith and a stonemason and a miner is some nice vertical integration, but might be a bit excessive in investment. I'd personally recommend only puissant-ing one of them. You might want to consider 'cautious with finesse' or 'cautious with prof: miner' instead, because no-one likes large caverns collapsing on their heads.
You probably also want to look towards Hermetic Architecture as a saga goal.
Recruit some other dwarves to be your blacksmiths. No dwarf fortress can survive with only one dwarf.
Well, I took the Close Family Ties story flaw, precisely so that she can call on her family of dwarf-blooded miners to help out.
I also think that there may be a Dwarf-blooded mystery cult around, possibly with members shared primarily between the Verditius and Merinita, with various Puissant (craft) initiations plus, say, Ways of the Stone and Stone Lore, and some Terram related virtues. But that's a topic for another thread
You may wish to take a look at the RoP:M minor general virtue (whose name escapes me: Innate Characteristic? Something like that) that grants a +3 to what amounts to a specialty; the trick being that it grants that bonus to ALL skills that can have that specialty. So basically you can take "good aim", and have that apply to all abilities that you can aim with.
In context, I find this useful when I want to design a character that has multiple craft or profession skills, as they usually will have similar specializations.
Of course, you'll need to come up with an appropriate descriptor, as it has to be a description of the character, rather than an actual ability specialization. So "rock" or "underground" wouldn't work, but "cautious" or "creative" or "artistic" would. (In meta-gaming convention, this is the generalized parent virtue for all of those "+3 to a specific circumstance" sort of minor virtues.)
