Mudlark

Look What I Found!

“You learn quickly, picking through what others discard, that value is rarely where it’s supposed to be. It’s where no one thought to look twice.”

— Ekira Kuomi, seasoned river rat

A mudlark is the kind of person who has made a habit out of checking the places everyone else ignores. Piles of debris, broken crates, flooded streets, abandoned corners of buildings, anywhere things tend to collect when no one is paying attention. It is not glamorous work, and it is rarely clean, but it is surprisingly reliable.
Most people assume that if something had value, it would not be sitting in a heap of refuse or half buried under rubble. A mudlark knows better. Small valuables get dropped. Useful items get discarded because they are inconvenient. Details that matter get overlooked because no one bothered to look closely in the first place. Given enough time and a bit of patience, there is almost always something worth finding.
The trick is knowing how to look without wasting time. A mudlark does not pick through everything. They develop an instinct for where things tend to end up and what is worth checking. The way debris settles, the kinds of objects people lose without noticing, the difference between something that belongs and something that was left behind. It adds up quickly, and it means they find things others walk right past.
What they uncover is not always impressive. Sometimes it is just a small item with a bit of value, the sort of thing that would not change anyone’s fortunes but is still worth having. Other times it is a clue or a detail that makes something else make more sense. It is rarely dramatic, but it is consistently useful.
Spending time in these kinds of places also teaches a mudlark how to move through them. Clutter stops being an obstacle and starts becoming an advantage. Loose boards, scattered junk, broken furniture, anything that is not fixed in place can be used for quick cover if you know where to step and when to duck. It is not elegant, and it is not something you can plan ahead of time. It is just a habit of using what is already there instead of wishing the ground were clear.
Of course, it only works where there is something to find. A perfectly maintained space with nothing out of place does not offer much opportunity, and a location that has already been picked clean is just a waste of effort. Fortunately, most places fall somewhere in between, and even the neatest environments tend to have a corner or two where things get ignored.
A mudlark does not expect treasure. They expect leftovers, mistakes, and things no one thought were worth the trouble.
They're usually right.

“People throw away the strangest things. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes because they don’t know what they’ve got. Either way, it ends up in my pockets.”

— Dockside proverb

Mudlark

You have a practiced eye for value hidden in neglect, and the instincts to turn overlooked environments into advantage. Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency in the Perception or Investigation skill (your choice). If you are already proficient in the chosen skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses that skill.
When you spend at least 1 minute searching a significantly cluttered or long-abandoned area, such as ruins, refuse piles, derelict structures, or heavily debris-strewn spaces, you can uncover something others would miss. Once you use this ability, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. The DM determines what you find, appropriate to the environment: either a mundane object worth 5 gp or less that is not chosen by you and is not specifically useful for solving the current obstacle, or a minor clue, secondary detail, or environmental insight that supports existing information but does not reveal critical discoveries. This ability functions only where such findings could reasonably already exist.
When you are within 5 feet of environmental debris or loose objects of meaningful size that are not fixed in place, you can use a bonus action to gain half cover until the start of your next turn. The debris must be present at the start of your turn and cannot be objects you dropped or arranged during the encounter. You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.