the Memory of the Elves

Over at Pits Perilous is a post about "Age and the Elven Character ...", and at Echoes from the Geekcave, a tangentially related post about the Staff of Withering, a magic item that causes accelerated ageing in mortals, but to which Elves and dwarves are less susceptible.

These got me thinking a little about Elf-characters in my game, and what answer I might give to a player if they were suddenly to remember that their character is presumably an ancient being that has existed in the world since the first glimmering of starlight, from the age before the Rainbow Bridge was set against Heaven to join the realms of the gods with those of men below ...

"I was there, Gandalf ... I was there three thousand years ago ..."

The short answer, to be honest, is that I generally assume that all new characters are foreigners to the particular part of the world I've established as my setting. Like Barker's "Empire of the Petal Throne", new characters are all "fresh off the boat" in a new world--even if the Elves (and dwarves, to a lesser extent) do have long and ancient memories, they're memories concerning some other place in the world. What good will a full knowledge of the history of the Ethiopian kings and queens do you when delving in dungeons in England, really?

Moreover, Elves and men are fundamentally, metaphysically different, a thing which is easy to forget when your character is just some numbers and a list of equipment and spells on a sheet of paper before you. I do emphasize the difference during play--Elves do not have mortal souls in my game, and they do not age, and as such Elves may not be of Good, Lawul, or Evil alignment. But the differences extend beyond that--why do demihumans have level restrictions while humans do not? The old explanation I've always had for that was that Elves (and other demihumans) do not live in the present as well as humans do. Given so much time with which to live, they do not feel the pressing need to always be learning and remembering things--while the humans are all running around gaining experience and leveling up as fast they can, the Elves are dawdling, meditating by the river, learning the names of the trees of the forest and watching them season by season ...

Which is to say, if the Elves are doing such things (and always partying in the perpetual summer of their youth to boot), then their long memories are going to be filled with the songs of the winds, and the names of the trees of the forest, and how the generations of foxes in the woods have developed a new mouse-hunting culture, and all kinds of supremely local but generally useless things. Now, assuming that a first level Elf is one of these forest children who has decided that a life of adventuring would be fine for a while, their entry into human culture is going to be one without any memory of the histories of men. So Thidrek Silverhelm was prince here two hundred years ago?--so what? I was following the otters in the rivers two hundred years ago, and I learned some of the poetry of their folk, and when the best times to fish for trout are versus when to fish for perch. Etc.

On the other hand ... so your Elf character has a long memory and wants to know the kinds of things he or she recalls? One could take the opportunity as referee to respond with an infodump (and to gleefully bore the player to tears until they get back to dungeoneering, if you want!): So there were seventeen princes in the area in the past couple centuries. The first was Born Ironfist, and he ruled the area with his strength until he was overthrown by his treacherous captain of the guard, Baric the Bald. Then Baric had to fight long wars against the other lords who had been subject to Born to maintain his rule, etc. etc. It would be fair to point out that with such a vast memory, it's difficult to remember any particular thing; but that maybe with enough time meditating, the character could remember something relevant to whatever thing in memory he was seeking ...

Going into this, I thought I might ultimately write down some kind of random table of historical facts an Elf (or dwarf, to a lesser extent), might know, but I think I have a better idea for a gameable idea.

------

Elfin Memory
This is a class ability to be added to the other special rules to be used when playing an Elf-class character. (or a Free Goblin character in my game, as goblins and Elves come of the same stock)

Because of their immortal lifespans (barring death by accident, violence, or disease), Elves have deep memories of lore and past things--but very few such memories are retained or called up at any moment by the conscious mind. If an Elf character wishes to remember something in particular--an item of legend, the lyrics of an ancient lay, the proper names and means of address of all the trees of the forest, or any of the myriad details of history--he may go into a kind of meditative trance and "sift" through his memories.

Each day spent doing so allows a cumulative 5% chance of remembering something relevant to the object of thought that the referee may relate, i.e. at the end of three days meditating there is a 15% chance that the Elf has recalled something relevant. It may not be anything obviously or immediately useful--the particulars of the memory are up to the referee to decide.

This is not without a risk, of course. At the end of the trance, the Elf character must make a saving throw against death, and for each day after the first spent "sifting" through memories in this manner the save is made with a cumulative -1 penalty. Success indicates that the Elf returns without any trouble, but a failure means that the Elf has been overcome with nostalgia for the starlit forests of Elfland and/or has touched however briefly the absurdity of eternal thinking existence without a soul. The character must return to Elfland (wherever that may be--could even just be a nearby forest if you're a kind referee) as soon as possible or begin to waste away (losing one level per month, maybe), and must remain in Elfland from 1-6 months to throw off the mental fugue. After that they're free to return to adventure in the mortal world again.

(the player could run another character for the duration, or play could move to Elfland and whatever weird adventures are to be had there, if everyone is amenable ... and time could flow strangely for mortals there as well if one wanted to get crazy and change the mortal world while all are away!)


Dwarven Memory
The same as Elfin Memory, except for a couple of items:

1) Dwarves will only have memories from 0-500 years back (1d6-1 x 100)--as dwarves are not immortal, just extremely long-lived by mortal standards.

2) Dwarves receive a +5% bonus to any attempt to remember details about architecture, caves, stoneworking, crafted items, etc.--the kinds of things dwarves should stereotypically know anyway.

3) Dwarf saving throws nicely model the fact that dwarves are already more in line with human society anyway, and so "sifting" through their memories will be less likely to drive them back to their halls of stone (because of their good saves) than an Elf of the same level.

The Goblin King has a Name

... and his name is Danohir the Mirk.

But really, I just wanted to say that I love it when ideas suddenly (finally!) cohere. I've been running my Greyhame Game for four and a half months now (since 1 October last year), and my starting pitch included the Goblin King and his alliance with the Lord of Werewolves ... but I never was certain just who the Goblin King was.

Several times I've had players ask captured goblins the name of their King, and where is he? And lo! though I hate it as a player when I ask for but do not receive a Name, I did that very thing to my players, evading their queries or hemming and hawing until they got bored and just killed the poor goblins (they did always learn that the King was "further below", at least).

I was sorely tempted to just let his name be Jarred and look just like David Bowie in Labyrinth, but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Especially not when I already have a character named Jaer, stolen from another medium ...

But, today I figured it out. The Goblin King has a name and a backstory, and I'll be regaling the players of my Greyhame Game with it soon enough, and posting it in full here on this blog.

And it's funny how much of what I figured out was inspired by a random roll that occurred during the game this week (on 19 February ... I have yet to write up that 21st expedition), a wilderness roll that indicated an encounter with a party of Elves. We didn't even roleplay it beyond a snooty Elf making fun of the party and then continuing on ... but even just that little piece of information, lodged in the back of my mind as I was worrying the Name of the Goblin King like a piece of fatty gristle, ultimately produced the entire rest of the backstory.

------

So this isn't really much of a post, other than to remark on how one can run a game for a long while without knowing all the little details (four months without knowing a main antagonist's name for me), and also about how great it is when little details suddenly cohere in a moment of inspiration.

As a Joesky tax, here's a Free Goblin spell:


Steal Shadow
Free Goblin, Elf, magic-user level 4
duration: permanent (until/unless the shadow is released)
target: one creature's shadow
range: touch (insofar as one can "touch" a shadow)
materials: two silver nails, each worth 50 gold or more

This spell must be cast while standing in another creature's shadow, and is completed by driving the enchanted nails into one's boots, thus nailing the shadow to them.

When you walk away, the victim is left without a shadow, causing them slowly to fade away into nothingness themselves, losing one level of life energy for every week without a shadow. If they can find another shadow somehow, the fading will cease wherever it left off. (the Unnameable Monastery might be a place to start looking for a new shadow)

As for the shadow nailed to your boots--it acts as a monstrous shadow, acting on your initiative and at your direction and draining strength just like the monster does. It can be released by pulling the nails from your shoes, but beware! It will probably attack you first, and then seek to reunited itself with its body--or, if that's impossible, it will wander the world's dungeons as a free shadow, creating more of its kind through its strength drain ...

Are Goblins Just the Worst?

On Monday, Kotaku published an article by Cecilia D'Anastasio entitled, "Goblin Fights In D&D Are The Worst," in which the author argues just that--that in D&D, goblins are just low-level mooks arrayed before low-level characters just so that the characters/players can have what is essentially a no-risk fight and means of gaining experience: "Repeat [to hit rolls] ad nauseum until, huzzah!, the goblins have died. Your dungeon master ... informs you that you have been awarded some experience points. Your party licks their wounds and continues on their journey."

She claims that these goblin fights are boring, standing as stagnant interludes between moments of what the game is really about, i.e. (asking ironically), "How am I supposed to break up long periods of players developing their characters, puzzle-solving, discovering lore and fighting magical monsters?" It's strange to me that D'Anastasio doesn't see that goblins are magical monsters, and doesn't conceive of the possibility that the presence of goblins and whether they fight might be a means of puzzle-solving ...

My attention to this article was directed by David Rollins at blog Searching for Magic in his post "The Ecology of My Goblins or, How to Make Goblins Fun!" He takes issue with D'Anastasio's characterization of goblins, and I agree wholeheartedly with his rebuttal.

...
But I must admit--I do actually agree with D'Anastasio to a large degree. Battles without stakes are boring, and I don't play D&D just for the visceral joy of seeing dice roll across the table--I play for the visceral joy that a character's survival depends on that die roll! If goblins are being used by a referee just to be a no-risk fight, and I'm forced to slog through every round of it, and the goblins fight to the death, and none of it matters, I tune out. I've played in games like this; I played in a Pathfinder game where my paladin was blinded, but I refused the possibility to have him cured and had him run into the vanguard of every fight against Orcs just to test how far the referee would bend the rules not to kill him (he survived every fight; the absurdity was the only reason I was entertained).

This article piqued my interest because the last two games I've run in my Greyhame Dungeon Game have both involved goblins (Expedition 16 and Expedition 17; I haven't yet written up the latter). Expedition 16 involved what was basically a massacre of goblins; the characters entered the dungeon with a veritable army of wardogs and hirelings, and all together slaughtered some thirty goblins--but this was not "I miss," "I hit," "I miss," "I hit," ad nauseum, this was a running battle with groups of goblins panicking from bad morale rolls, running to the next goblin post for reinforcements, and/or going through side corridors in attempts to outflank the party. Nothing worked--the goblins were just too weak.

Expedition 17, meanwhile, involved only a couple of characters and their few hirelings and wardogs. During their first entrance into the dungeon, the party was overwhelmed by a large number of goblins, and after both dogs and one of the hirelings were killed, the party had to retreat. Outside the dungeon, they regrouped with a couple more dogs; then, going back into the dungeon, they were ambushed by the same large force of goblins. Another dog and the other hireling were killed, and it looked like the survivors would soon be goblin-arrow pincushions; but to my surprise, the two characters and their last dog fled downstairs to the next level of the dungeon, only escaping by lighting oil on fire behind them on the stair. After that, it was only by good luck that they found another exit from the dungeon so that they didn't have to face the goblins again.

I recite these examples as clear counterexamples to D'Anastasio's claim that goblin-fights are the worst. Both of these games were exciting--for different reasons!--and both involved goblins.

a couple of Free Goblins

So I agree with D'Anastasio in a general way that pointless fights are boring--but on the point of goblins I completely disagree, because the presence of goblins do not a pointless fight make. Goblins can be as boring as the Orcs that my blind paladin fought in that Pathfinder game, or as interesting as Rollins' weird hive-goblins, Jeff Rients' goblins with their goblin-doors (I keep forgetting to use these), or my own goblins who are certainly easily routed cowards, but who can also overwhelm and kill foolhardy adventurers (and they can cast magic and do other things too ...).

The relevant question to ask is not "Are there goblins?" but "Why are there goblins?" If the answer to the why of goblins is just to have no-risk fights for low-level characters, then fighting them is bound to become boring (but honestly, if that's the goblins' only point, if you're playing D&D, the game of tactical infinity, why don't you avoid fighting the goblins?).

What if the goblins are the type that steal children, and the fight
against the goblins determines whether you save the kids or not?

But in my game (and in Rollins' game, and in Rients' game, etc. etc.) goblins have probably been chosen because they specifically interest the referee. I know in my game, that's the case. I use goblins for a variety of reasons: goblins kidnap children (adventure hook--save the children!); goblins are the friends of wolves and werewolves (another hook in the monsters they associate with); goblins are either the slaves of Elves (and maybe sympathetic to the PCs?), or Free Goblins (both a player class, and a further adventure hook in that goblins hate Elves); higher level goblins cast weird magic (including goblin doors, probably); goblin kings are strange and powerful and as beautiful as Elves (or at least David Bowie); and let's be honest, fighting goblins in an old school game where a referee is willing to see characters die is just not boring!

the Goblin King

Goblins are great! Use them, please, in great numbers and in great varieties. Make them interesting, and make sure interactions with them (fights and otherwise) matter.

Goblins are incredibly versatile monsters, by the way; I've seen lots of different goblins in modules, including fungus-goblins (Tomb of the Serpent Kings) and blue goblins (Mortzengursturm the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak) and Batiri jungle goblins (Tomb of Annihilation); and don't forget the goblins of other media, especially Labyrinth, and even Blix from Legend.

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 5

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Kaaraak the Eagle speaks to the Elves in the party of the Eyries of the Eagles ...

tonight's roster:
Eden Littlethorpe (halfling druid 1, name pronounced "e-DEN"; also, brother of Enzo Littlethorpe of Galtshire, an as yet little known halfling artist who's greatest work so far is an intriguing image of the lizardman eye-licking ritual of homage)
Foz (free goblin 1, has been to the Glimmervaults once before)
with Proz (a boar hound dressed in armor)
Okuda (bushi 1, bushi being from the Oriental Adventures book)
with Shield (another boar hound pet in armor)
Roland (dwarf cleric 1, got a spell at first level because of AD&D)


As noted above, the party acquired two dogs while also acquiring equipment (Eden and Roland needing to equip themselves as newly minted characters).

They decided to head for the Glimmervaults, because Foz had been there before (and had acquired a musty old map, apparently, from some other adventurers from years before, which indicated the presence of great treasure behind a "fire tornado of doom" as the map seemed to indicate).

Nothing molested them on the way there; there are two entrances to the Glimmervaults, an eastern entrance higher on the slope, with myriad humanoid heads on spears outside the doorway--and Foz spied rather more heads than before, many of the new ones being orc heads; and a western entrance through a natural stone grotto that leads into a kind of cave network.

There was some confusion as to which entrance the party was using, some electing for orcs, others saying the western entrance, and because I started describing the cave features, that's where the party ultimately ended up. They passed through several chambers and corridors already familiar to Foz (behind a secret door in a flowstone formation), and went to check doors left unchecked on that previous expedition.

In the room with the several defaced statues and the plaque on the wall reading a curse, "Galad's tribe is destroyed root and branch ... may this place be accursed," the party was surprised by ... a wandering troupe of cave locusts. These semi-docile creatures were startled by a thrown rock and started leaping every which way in their panic, and one struck Roland, but his stolid dwarfness allowed him to just shove off the large locust without injury. Beyond that, the creatures simply retreated back up the corridors.

This, but giant-sized ... like labrador dog sized

Continuing on, the party first opened an eastern door, which led into a semi-long east-zagging corridor with two southern doors and a dead end to the south east.

Behind the first door, the party found three sarcophagi, labeled ALDARES, GALADON, and BALEARES. Inside the first sarcophagus (ALDARES), which they had to unseal by prying plaster away with a dagger, the group found a gold torc, a ring, and a nice chain of office. When they opened the second tomb, however, marked GALADON, they got only a glimpse of a gold deathmask, inlaid with wonderful jewelry, before a second horde of locusts burst through the door, creaking and sawing and making a great din. Because of the danger from their leaping all around and running into things, the party fled back into the corridor and further along.

The next door opened onto another tomb, this one labeled HORUS, a great sarcophagus dominating the room's center and decorated with carvings on every side, all of battles against phalanxes of spearmen, war elephants, and chariots. Inside, the group found a pair of scrimshawed elephant tusks with further images of battle.

This is the Tomb of Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband,
Francis I Holy Roman Emperor; this image doesn't really do justice to the grandiosity
of the thing, which as I recall depicts a naval battle on one side
(on my sojourn in the Imperial Crypts); anyway, Horus' sarcophagus is like this

In another tomb leading off the chamber with the defaced statues, the party also discovered walls depicting a gathering of semi-barbarous Getae under their kings, one crowned with red, the other with black; while on the other wall was a bas-relief of Brondr, first Bronding King, being acclaimed by being lifted on a shield by the people, wearing a white crown.

In the dead end corridor, the party found a secret door leading back out into a cave system; Foz, sticking his head out first, saw a half a dozen figures passing by in darkness beyond, and quickly hushed the party and dimmed their light; after some conversation and waiting by the party, the figures passed silently on into the darkness north, and the way was clear. Down the stairs on the other side of the door, the party discovered an ancient stalactite/stalagmite column carved to show an Elfin male descending from a ceiling glinting with reflections like stars down toward a human female.

Several side passages included one to the south that leads to the second level of the Glimmervaults; and one to the east that breathes a colder air than even the cave is naturally heir to.

But, D&D character that he is, Foz eyed the glimmering ceiling and took up a rope, and climbed the column Mulan-style.

Especially when you have an 87% climb skill as a thief,
+10% because the referee likes your idea

From the top of the column, he managed to pry out from the ceiling several of what were indeed ultimately gemstones, cut to reflect light and seem like stars. With these pieces of loot in hand, Foz suggested a return to town, and the party agreed--they seemed to have gathered enough loot.

On the way back, they stopped to pick up the elephant tusks (they'd left them behind as fragile things, meaning to return to pick them up), and listening to the door from that tomb, they heard a horrible skittering of insectile legs. Out of an abundance of prudence, the party waited; listened again; heard nothing, and found the corridor beyond empty. But at the next door, to the statue-room, they heard the same creepy skittering. This time they braced the door as they waited, and briefly felt pressure from inside attempting to get out; but this subsided, and the party retreated to another tomb to wait. When they returned back that way, heading again for the entrance/exit, the source of the weird skittering was gone.

Beyond that, the way back out and back to town was free and clear (again, no wilderness encounters, alas).

The party did manage to find a merchant especially interested in artefacts from the Glimmervaults. He bought the tusks and a signet ring for far more than their market value, and furthermore offered a bounty, collectible by anyone, for rubbings or drawings of the battle-tomb of Horus, some hundred to several thousand gold, depending on the quality of the product returned. His name is Kors Langbard (he's also a little bit racist against short people like halflings, goblins, dwarves, etc).

Lastly, the party must needs go carousing! At the newly established local drinking hole, the Black Dragon's Meed, Roland spent exorbitantly and hit on a woman at the bar, only to find too late that she was in fact a witch--fortunately for Roland, the hex she attempted to curse him with failed to affect him. Eden got into a bit of a scuffle with the law, and ended up having to pay a small fine for attempting to free a tree from the confines of downtown back to its true home in the woods; and poor Foz, well, he fell in love with a brief romantic dalliance--one Rosy Nettlebrer, a halfling woman already engaged to an upstanding halfling from Hopshire.


And thus ends a prudent adventure, well rewarded for caution.

New Class: the Free Goblin

As opposed to goblins still enslaved by their Elfin masters. The Elves of in my setting are soulless jerks who are followed around by entourages of enslaved goblins and ensorcelled/infatuated humans ... not that goblins aren't soulless jerks too, once freed, as Elves and goblins come from the same stock. The Elves just get the good blood, and the goblins get the ugly-genes.

Blix (from Legend) was almost a Free Goblin when he got that
unicorn horn ... then the Devil showed up to remind him who's boss

I tend to think goblins are more interesting than orcs (don't get me wrong, I use a lot of orcs ... but the encounters with Goblin Kings and such tend to be more fun than with just another orc chieftain), so when contemplating adding another demi-human to my game--a semi-monstrous one, like a half-orc--I opted instead to write up the goblin as a new B/X demi-human class. Half-orcs might come later, but goblins are what I have now. So:

The FREE GOBLIN
To play a free goblin, a character cannot have a charisma higher than 12. The free goblin's prime requisite is Dexterity; 13+ grants a 5% bonus to xp earned on an adventure, while 16+ grants a 10% bonus (non cumulative). Free Goblins may be Chaotic or Arcane of alignment.

                                                                                                                      SPELLS
                                                                                                 First      Second     Third     Fourth
Level 1 -- Scroggling -- 1d4 HD -- 0 XP                                --            --              --           --
Level 2 -- Goblin -- 2d4 HD -- 2500 XP                                1             --              --           --
Level 3 -- Hobgoblin -- 3d4 HD -- 5000 XP                          2             --              --           --
Level 4 -- Bugabear -- 4d4 HD -- 10,000 XP                         2            1               --           --
Level 5 -- Goblin King -- 5d4 HD -- 20,000 XP                    2            2                --           --
Level 6 -- Goblin King 6th Level -- 5d4+1 hp -- 40,000       2            2                1            --
Level 7 -- Goblin King 7th Level -- 5d4 +2 hp -- 80,000      3            2                1            --
Level 8 -- Goblin King 8th Level -- 5d4 +3 hp -- 200,000    3            2                2            1
Free Goblins may advance no higher than 8th level.

Goblins fight as clerics, save as thieves, may use any weapons (except those too large for a smaller creature to use, e.g. no two-handed swords, no longbows, no polearms), may wear only leather armor, but may cast spells while wearing armor. They may use shields, but cannot cast spells if their hands are full, i.e. wielding a weapon and a shield at the same time.

Being free goblins, freed from the yoke of slavery under the Elves, goblins hate Elves and may not adventure in their company; likewise, Elves will not associate with free goblins (other than perhaps by trying to re-enslave them).

Goblins have thief skills as a thief of the same level, and cast spells from their own spell list:

First Level
1) Detect Magic, 2) Protection from Law, Darkness, 3) Cause Fear, 4) Charm Person, 5) Hold Portal, 6) Sleep, 8) Ventriloquism, 9) Douse Lights, 10) Phantasmal Force, 11) Audible Glamer, 12) Change Self

Second Level
1) Blight (opposite of bless), 2) Silence 15', 3) Snake Charm, 4) Speak with Animals, 5) Detect Invisible, 6) ESP, 7) Invisibility, 8) Knock, 9) Locate Object, 10) Mirror Image, 11) Web, 12) Wizard Lock

Third Level
1) Cause Disease, 2) Animal Growth, 3) Curse, 4) Dispel Magic, 5) Haste, 6) Invisibility 10', 7) Protection from Normal Missiles, 8) Waterbreathing, 9) Hold Person, 10) Suggestion, 11) Slow, 12) Blindness

Fourth Level
1) Cause Serious Wounds, 2) Poison, 3) Sticks to Snakes, 4) Charm Monster, 5) Confusion, 6) Dimension Door, 7) Hallucinatory Terrain, 8) Massmorph, 9) Polymorph Self, 10) Polymorph Other 11) Wall of Fire, 12) Wizard Eye

At 5th level, goblins reach Name Level--Goblin Kings--and if they construct a labyrinth (i.e. a dungeon), they will gain 4-24 goblin followers. These are normal goblins (1-1 HD), and they will do as commanded only if cajoled, bullied, or bribed by the Goblin King. They always have Morale 7, regardless of treatment by the Goblin King or the deaths of their fellows, and are a generally unruly and surly lot. They may be replaced by referee fiat.

Goblin Kings also gain two abilities, first they can fill their labyrinth with magical tricks, creating one per week--these tricks can virtually be anything, but must be worked out with the referee. Secondly, Goblin Kings gain the ability to transform human infants or children in to 1st level Free Goblins, a process that takes one year.

Goblin Kings don't automatically gain a potato in their pants,
but they certainly ought to construct a magical codpiece

I wrote the Free Goblin class to reach "name level" quickly, i.e. 5th, to let people get into the domain game quickly, with their goblin followers and their ability to construct labyrinths/dungeons--and also to keep goblins weak compared to other demi-humans and especially humans. I wouldn't personally be put off by it when rolling up a character, but I wouldn't be surprised if it put others off.

Alas, despite my constantly pointing out to my players that they can roll up Free Goblins, none have yet taken me up on that offer. They haven't seen the rules (having evinced no interest), so I don't know if these just seem like weakling characters, or if my current group just isn't interested in playing creepy goblins. So I don't have any free goblin feats to report on.