Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 26

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance in the dungeons beneath the Howling Tower ...
the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles atop the Greyhame Mountain itself ...
and the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...


29 March's roster:
Lead (cleric 4)
Baby-Face (thief 5)
Valor Justice (Elf 1)
Little Bob (travelling-man 4)
Aethelwulf (paladin 4)
Blackleaf (Elf 4)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
and a coterie of hirelings and dogs


To the Howling Tower, to deal with the Goblin King and his meddling with Star-Things!

On the second night out, the characters came across a pair of wolves, unconscious and lying in the woods, with a strange and shimmering silver cord rising from each up into the night sky toward the singing Stars. The party was baffled. Baby-Face suggested that the stars were sucking information out of them, but who knows?

Aethelwulf decided to put one out of its ... misery isn't quite the right word. Still, he slew one with his sword; the silver cord snapped as soon as the body was slain.

After that, Koko attempted to use her ring of animal control on the "surviving" wolf, to no avail; Blackleaf tried to read any thoughts in it with her amulet of ESP, but detected nothing within--not even an animal intelligence. It seemed the bodies were mere shells, alive in the barest sense of the word, and Aethelwulf killed the second one.

Then the party made camp, and I telegraphed that something was coming by asking for a watch schedule. Alas, but I have only just introduced actual encounters that require a watch schedule in the wilderness; I should probably request one as a matter of course when setting out from town.

Anyway, four watches were set over the course of the night, and I rolled the first watch, which Lead and Blackleaf had taken. So as they stayed up to watch over their comrades, Blackleaf suddenly felt as if some kind of insect were crawling over her back--and yet nothing was there!

The invisible thing's attack failed against Blackleaf. Hands attempting to find it failed to touch anything, but the swordpoint of a magic sword carefully pressed into the area around the weird crawling feelings resulted in contact with some kind of invisible presence. Those individuals who were wakened and had magic weapons proceeded to attack the invisible thing; despite penalties to their attacks, they managed to hit the thing and avoid hitting Blackleaf until finally whatever it was seemed to fall off; searching the ground with magical swordpoints finally revealed something on the ground that didn't seem to be moving around. The thing was dead? They couldn't see it or touch to really ascertain ... so they went back to their regular watch schedule.

Nothing further happened.

Arriving on the ridge atop which stands the Howling Tower, fronted by its two pyres of goblin and ogre corpses, the players agreed to enter through the insect tunnels on the north side of the ridge, which lead directly into the first dungeon level and bypass the Tower itself. Lead left his mule Sparkly outside (mules don't fit in the tunnels), guarded by Baby Face's hirelings Thorn and Cadmus.

The party made their way through the first dungeon level seeking for the stairs down to the second level. They encountered what seemed to be a mobile puddle of water as a wandering monster, but easily destroyed the ooze with an overwhelming number of attacks.

Descending to the second dungeon level, the party headed south. They passed through the room that contained the star pool, which has once been seen to contain a Cthulu-ish tentacular horror; but it seemed empty of anything but stars at the moment. Passing to the south, the party found a door that opened into a chamber with three statues in the NE, SE, and SW corners. One was of a beautiful, seductive Elf-maiden, one of Anglamorath the Dragon, and the last of Astora Queen of Stars in full regalia.

Through the eastern door of that chamber, the party found a north-south corridor that they followed south. They ultimately walked into a chamber which was a goblin-barracks containing more than a dozen goblins. A sleep spell incapacitated many, and the others were slaughtered. The party killed two, but tied up four of the sleeping goblins (amusingly, my notes read "sleeping orcs", a Tolkienian slip); questioning those left alive, they learned from the poor creatures that "the Goblin King can be found through the western corridor and down the stair," while "treasure could be found north with the webs and the snakes."

Leaving the goblins behind, the party went west through further corridors. They ran into a party of goblins and one wolf as wandering monsters. My notes are sparse; I believe that what happened was that the goblins were driven back into another room, which contained other goblins. But ultimately, the party encountered a party of goblins including three that seemed less crooked than their fellows, all of whom began casting spells when the party moved to the attack.

One of the goblin magic-users doused the party's lights so that all was darkness. One of them threw a web spell, incapacitating most of the party (I think initiative was simultaneous, though, because I remember dogs and frontline fighters getting into melee); the last of the goblins cast a sleep spell which dropped all the frontline dogs except Panzer, Little Bob's orc mastiff.

A short melee round ensued; meanwhile, for the webbed party, Lead the cleric lit a torch and set the web alight. So it burned up (in one round; in retrospect it takes two rounds in the rules, but whatever), causing 1-6 damage to all those stuck within. This fire damage killed the hirelings Clara and Ilana of Blackleaf, but the rest of the party was thus freed.

Beyond that, the combat was short--one of the goblins got off a second douse lights spell, but the characters lit another torch; and another one managed to get off a mirror image, which allowed him alone to survive the combat. After all the other goblins were slain, this last fellow was finally subdued and tied up. He directed the party to the Goblin King's inverse-tower in return for his life, and also let drop a mention that the captured children were turned into goblins by the King by being spun up in spider-silk; and then he was left behind by the party. Meanwhile, some characters were looting the room--they found a good deal of gold, a magic helm, a magic shield, a potion, a scroll, a bow, and a spear (much of it loot from the dead goblin-magic-users).

Through another short corridor, the party finally opened a door onto a long spiral stair down into the darkness. It seems to lead down to dungeon levels three and four, but our time was short ... behind a door on the landing, Blackleaf detected the thoughts of scared children. The door was forced open, and the party found a group of five scared and emaciated children.

Our time was short, so the party ushered the children out of the dungeon. The only thing of note on the way out was that passing through the room with the three statues, the party found the statues changed into images of horrid hags, and as the party passed through, they were all subjected to a kind of curse.

Nothing else happened on the way back to town. Local high-level cleric Lailith (who won't adventure in Greyhame until the other characters are closer in level) agreed to lift the curses for 1000 gold altogether. And with his share of the wealth, Baby Face paid off the last 1600 gold of his debt to the Thieves' Guild.

------

Remembrance for the Fallen:
Clara and Ilana (normal women), Marlo and a number of dogs, Gram, Dorcas, Frida, and Johann Haybaler (normal hirelings), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (boarhounds), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghosthound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

and for those Enchanted away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Amrohir's Tale -- the Goblin King and the missing Elf-princess

In my last post about the 22nd Greyhame Game, I mentioned the Elf Amrohir who was a guest of the usurper Morholt, and who was on a quest to seek out the missing Elf-princess Amaltheia. The party was invited to an audience in the castle by Morholt, who then allowed Amrohir to state his case with the hope that the characters might aid in seeking out Amaltheia.

It was poorly a considered move from Morholt and Amrohir, as the characters listened to them and then immediately decided that they distrusted the usurper and the Elf, and if they were to seek out Amaltheia, that they would be on her side. Nevertheless, their attention was not on the Elf-woman yet--they're rather more concerned with the fact that the stars are singing and that the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves are stirring up the trouble with the stars ...

Still, I wanted to provide more details about the situation than I did during play (I'm pretty terrible at the NPC infodump at the table, I'm afraid). So here is the tale, as told by Amrohir:

------

"Some time ago--many, many years ago, as mortals count them, in fact--the Goblin King and his servants and allies were destroyed by the Elves in a battle in the forested depths of the Dwimmerholt. The wolves and werewolves were slain or driven away, the spiders were slaughtered, and those goblins who were not killed were captured and enslaved once more--mostly sent to toil in the mines and deep places, hard labor that would break their spirits and their bodies.

"It was thought that the Goblin King had been slain--his entourage was certainly destroyed, and the body of a goblin in his panoply was one of those recovered from the field. We Elves, naturally, crucified the body and carried it before us as a sign to others what would come of rebellion, and we broke the enchantments in the armor and displayed it before our armies as we returned to the courts of the forest in triumph.

"Of the Goblin King's bodyguard, only his shieldbearer had survived, a pathetic creature that called itself Mirk. He was such a crooked and pathetic thing that it seemed even the bearing of a shield must be difficult, and yet he was cunning with the twisted magic of the goblins, and knew something of lore and of poetry. And it was because of his quick wit and wry humor that Danur, Captain of the Elfin bowmen, took Mirk for himself to be a slave in his own household, rather than one of those sent to eternal toil in the mines.

"This decision was to be the cause of much evil, as I'm sure you have guessed.

"In Danur's household, Mirk quickly became a favorite and was made the chief slave. He always carried out his tasks intelligently, and though he had a tongue that was quick with criticism for his fellows, he was equally obsequious before his master. He was given much freedom as the years wore on--and ultimately used this freedom for evil. In secret, he read the books of power in Danur's possession, and cut his own runes on wands to develop his powers. And Danur wielded for himself a Ring into which had been bound the ancient spirit Calirath, and Mirk seduced her with promises of freedom. And lastly, working only on the nights of the new moon was all was most in darkness, Mirk forged for himself a Spear, and poured into it all the poison of his malice and his long simmering hatred.

"And when the Spear was finished at last, Mirk was ready. He caught and betrayed Danur while they were out hunting, and Calirath did nothing to save her master, but allowed the goblin slave to drive the Spear into Danur's heart. Then she bore up Mirk and returned with him to their dead master's household, and while all slept, Mirk stole the Name and the Shadow of Danohir, son of Danur.

"Then, wearing the face of Danohir, Mirk took his final revenge. That same night, he visited the Elf-princess Amaltheia, who was betrothed to marry Danohir, and Mirk seduced her, and left her with a goblin child growing in her womb. And after that, he, with the help of Calirath, and leading many freed goblin slaves, made an escape through the darks of the Dwimmerholt, out to Anduril Rock, there to renew the old alliance with the wolves.

"So it was that Goblin King has returned, and calls himself Danohir the Mirk, and he dwells in the Howling Tower with his misbegotten servants--no longer slaves of the Elves, they are his slaves now, and who knows what evil they are stirring up in their dungeons.

"But as for Amaltheia, she did not know the truth of her rape until the child was born nine months hence; she had thought only that her betrothed had come to her that night, and been murdered the next day, and much was her confusion when the child was born to her with a goblin's crooked features. She was much amazed, and much grieved too--into a swoon she fell, and when she awoke again, a terror had entered her that the child would be destroyed, and she as well, and so she got up in the night from her bed of labor, and taking the child in secret, she and it were spirited away by the night winds.

"I fear that some enchantment has affected her mind, or that some lingering spell of the Goblin King has poisoned her spirit. She must be found, and returned to her people! And so I, and many others of the Elfin courts of the Dwimmerholt, have gone forth seeking high and low and looking into the secret places of the world to find her. Myself, I have come to seek into the Glimmervaults--for though others think it is too well-known among Elves, and too near the evils of the Goblin King, I think perhaps she has strayed there in her terror, and dwells now in the deeps somewhere, lonely and afraid.

"I hope that you all may aid me in discovering her, thus to return Amaltheia to her people and to her own wits. And do not think that you will go unrewarded for it! We Elves can be a very generous people for those who prove themselves our Friends."

--such is the story that Amrohir told to Morholt, and later to the characters as they listened, and the details of it have spread around town as well--

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 4

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:

Caesar (man-ape 1, played by a fellow who has been excited about trying that class for some time)

Lead (cleric 2)

Baby-Face (thief 2, evil as of last game)

with Barth (normal man), Jimmy the Snitch and Thin-Faced Tim (wardogs)

Harambe (man-ape 1)

with Orion (lion dog, bought this session)

Unga Dunga (halfling 1)

with Valana (normal woman), Cletus the Brutalizer, Marmaduke, and Austin Dodger (dogs; Austin Dodger was a new purchase, a ghost hound)

and last minute arrivals

Rendorsheeg (Elf 1) and

Blackleaf (Elf 1)

also, the pack animals Sparkly the mule and Ramses the Great the camel

Both available dogs were bought this session (Orion the lion dog to Harambe, Austin Dodger the ghost hound to Unga Dunga); the hirelings and the special items (nightshade and fermented sleeper shark) went ignored.

I finally remembered at the session's beginning that Baby Face had insulted the son of the local lord, Morholt's son--and because vendetta has been declared, Baby Face was beaten and robbed at the beginning of the session, losing 2 hp and all of his gold. The ruffians did relate their allegiance by mentioning Morholt and how he doesn't like his son being insulted.

Also, a new inn has been half-constructed in town, the Black Dragon's Meed; at the moment it was but a drinking room (with long-term rooms still being constructed behind). The characters went to the grand opening and got the sense that this would be a place to learn rumors or buy weird things in the future, but for the moment it was just a drinking room.

The party agreed to head to the Howling Tower and prepared for the possibility of werewolves by buying silver weapons (Lead bought a brace of daggers for both man-apes at his own cost).

En marche to the Howling Tower, the party came upon a warband of orcs, freshly returned from a raid against local farming homesteads. They surprised the orcs, so I judged that the man-apes had gone forward and come back with information about their camp--and yes, the orcs were camped, hating the day and preferring to march at night.

Rendorsheeg elected to cast ventriloquism, and sought to start a fight between the orcs a la Gandalf inciting the mutual ire of the trolls in The Hobbit. He spoke an insult, offering that the lead orc ought to fight the rest because he could "take them". I rolled a "12" on reactions, so the other orcs responded as if the leader had actually spoken; I then rolled a second reactions roll to see how the leader responded, and also rolled a "12"--and "12" is supposed to represent something "good" for the characters is how I read it. So exactly what the characters intended happened--the orcs fell among themselves, fighting each other, and killed about half their own number, alluding to a civil war possibly fought among the orc tribe/s back in the Glimmervaults.

A second ventriloquism attempt to get the surviving orcs to fight each other failed, but a volley of arrows was sufficient to send them fleeing in panic. The party then freed the orcs' three prisoners and liberated the loot for themselves. Rendorsheeg attempted to hire on of the three farmers into his service (Conan, as opposed to Diarmid and Kjartan, as the three were named), but he was too eager to get back to his own homestead to take care of the damage and salvage what they could.

Before they headed out, however, someone let slip the name "Morholt", and one of the farmers looked at Baby Face. I recognize you, he said, and good on you for insulting that fop, Morholt's son, whatever his name is. I hate him; I hate his father; Morholt is a usurper, and I've heard that he's got our dead lord's wife sequestered in a tower in his castle. After that the former prisoners head back to civilization, while the adventurers continue on toward the Howling Tower.

As for the Howling Tower, it stands atop the main spur that comes down from Greyhame Mountain. It is barely above the timberline, with scraggling pine trees around it; and itself, it is an ancient square tower, once a strong place for the Getae, the forest-men who anciently allied themselves with the Elves of the Dwimmerholt, and were driven forth when the Brondings came down from the north.

Nothing more molested the party on their approach to the tower, and they climbed the short stair to its entrance door ... inside they turned immediately north. Inside that room, they heard a rumbling voice speaking to itself in Goblin and the panting of dogs. Opening it, they found a room with a large fur-wrapped figure flanked by two wolves, huddling before a fire. Who goes there? the figure boomed in Goblin.

The new groundskeeper, one of the party members came up with. A high reactions roll gave him the benefit of the doubt (though one doubts much grounds to be kept around the tower). The large figure seemed to be blind, with milky white eyes; the party dithered for a while, and finally managed to offer a sleep apple to him, and as he ate of it, he fell asleep. The two wolves, meanwhile, kept a close watch and with hackles raised kept their master safe by accepting rations from Baby Face and an orc head from Rendorsheeg (retreating to chew at the orc head as if it were a peanut butter toy, but by "peanut butter" one understands "brains"); as they ate of these things, the party made off with a nice tiger pelt from the blind Begor's collection (yeah, the blind figure's name is Begor), and also with Begor's bag (some 1000 gp!)

(There was a conversation before Begor slept which included the information that both the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves lived below and the party also learned Begor's name, and that's he's a very grumpy dude)

Continuing on, the party found a larder (cheese, skinned animals, wine casks), and a room with a hutch for rats. Rendorsheeg made the mistake of sticking his hands into the rat hutch and taking 1 damage as they bit him--and having only 1 hp, he fell unconscious, and Lead had to use his cure light wounds spell to revive the unlucky Elf.

Thereafter, the party surprised a group of goblins in their room, who panicked after the party's dogs ripped several apart--and the goblins were thereafter tied up with Unga Dunga's rope.

Another room later, the party slaughtered more goblins, again mostly using their dogs, who tore the poor creatures apart like dogs tear dolls apart. These two battles were brutal for the poor goblins. This room included a stair down to the second level (and I forgot to give xp for finding the stair down, crap!)

Down the stair, the party finds many doors. A figure stands at the end of the southern corridor in a T; the party finds it to be a statue like the Venus de Milo but of an Elf-Queen badly defaced and graffitied in Goblin. Of the doors, one is heard to have insectile skittering behind it, another the cracking of bones. Several doors hold completely empty tombs; but one holds 6 pallid corpse-things with long tongues and yellow teeth that attack the party.

Like this, except the image is labeled "ASTORA"
(Elf-queen of beauty and youth), and is of an Elf-woman,
and her head is knocked off, and Goblin anarchy symbols
are painted on it

Lead turns undead and with a prayer (but without a holy symbol, so I reduced the HD affected by 2) turns 4 of the 6; the other two are attacked by the party. In the melee, Harambe ends up in a weird death embrace, paralyzed while wrestling one of the creatures to death, while Caesar was paralyzed in general melee; but the last creature was destroyed before it could inflict much damage.

The party looted the room under Lead's continuing prayer to the Chaotic and Good gods, and then checked out one other tomb (Lead, throwing open a tomb, saved successfully against the poison needle that pricked his finger). Then they all decided it was time to leave the dungeon.

On the first level, they went to retrieve the tied-up goblins and were accosted by more goblins. This resulted in a short battle that ended up destroying the goblin newcomers. Then the party still had to move through Begor's room to get back to the dungeon entrance, and managed to talk their way through.

Ultimately, back at town, pretty much everyone caroused. Baby Face found himself in debt to the thieves' guild; as did Caesar the man-ape; Lead fell for his amorous dalliance, and was disappointed to learn that she is already married; and Unga Dunga found himself addicted to lotus powder after his first serious try with its euphoria.

As for the goblins hauled back to town, Lead happened to hear "slavery" mentioned a couple times and preempted the party from selling the poor 8 goblin prisoners by remanding them to his own Good shrine, hoping to make them Good. We have yet to see what good this effort yields ...

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.