(Active) worst of WIS and STR
  Possessed By: Some Humans, Kobolds, Gnomes, Dwarves, Deep Gnomes, Grey Dwarves, Earthsingers.
  Effects:  The Mining skill has these uses:
   * Discern Value (Passive): In addition to actual mining, the Mining skill allows you to discern the location of deposits of diamonds, gold, gemstones and valuable magical metals such as adamant, orichalcum or mithril -- your character is able to perceive where these deposits lie by analyzing the composition and formations of the stone around her. This perception is automatic and reaches out to a range of 1/2 your Mining skill rating in squares; this range is extended by 3 squares for characters with the Stonework Sense ability. These deposits appear on screen as rock glyphs, usually isolated islands in the middle of solid stone, that are coloured differently than the normal rock that composes the dungeon -- bright white for diamonds, silver or mithril, yellow for gold, various bright colours for gemstones, dark grey for adamant, etc.
   Characters that do not have the Mining skill cannot perceive deposits, even if they have a significant untrained skill rating. Furthermore, only digging releases the mineral treasure from a deposit -- since the metals or gemstones are essentially part of the stone, catching a deposit in the area of a transmute rock to mud spell destroys the treasure along with the stone.
   * Mining (Active): Using the Mining skill puts a character into digging mode; in this mode simply walking into walls will cause you to mine through them. A character's rating in the Mining skill determines what materials she can penetrate when digging. The character's skill rating plus a modifier based on the tool they are using must exceed the Hardness of the material in question, otherwise mining cannot occur. Thus, characters with low Mining will be able to dig through streamers but not normal rock, while a character with a magical digging implement and a truly exceptional digging tool might even be able to dig through an adamant wall!
   The difference between a character's level in the Mining skill and the hardness of the material they are digging through is also the factor used to calculate how long mining out a single square, and how much Fatigue, if any, is lost in so doing.
   Finally, when the character successfully mines through a vein or deposit containing treasure, the amount of precious materials that can be recovered intact in the mining process is modified by the Mining skill level, as well as the depth the deposit was found at.
   * Structural Integrity: Dungeons have already been heavily shaped and altered by human hands, and casual excavation not planned for in their initial creation places a strain on their geological integrity. Fortunately, a skillful miner can choose to remove stone in ways that minimize the strain on existing structures and grant a safe, well- supported mineshaft that stretches a greater distance. A character can mine out a number of squares on a given level equal to thrice their Mining skill rating safely. After this, every additional percent of that total mined increases the chance of a cave-in (with the same effect as an earthquake spell cast at 20th level) by the same percent culmulatively -- so a character with Mining +5 who mines 6 squares has a 20% chance of cave-in on the sixth, since a single square is 1/5th, or 20%, above the total safe limit. The next square would have a 40% chance of collapse, and so forth...