![]() As a result, practitioners of these difficult arts are often both awed and feared. Their species-wide illiteracy (born of a superstition that writing steals the words out of your head) means even the few goblins with a talent for magic or alchemy have little opportunity to learn about these subjects. The abilities to hunt, to steal, and to bully weaker folk lead to positions of influence and power within the tribe. Goblins who reach physical maturity are expected to be able to feed themselves those who can't are left to starve. Entertainment in the form of toddler goblin fights is not unheard of, and they may be armed with small knives, scavenged armaments, or just their own juvenile teeth and claws. Violence among young goblins is quite common and even encouraged by their tribes. Until they're old enough to walk freely among the rest of the tribe, goblin young are often restrained with chains, ropes, and crude cages. Goblin parenting consists primarily of making sure young goblins get food and don't wander too far. In times of abundance, goblins multiply even faster than normal, resulting in overpopulation and the eventual escalation of raiding. Abundant breeding, fast maturation, and adaptable physiology give goblins the ability to thrive in nearly any climate. Goblins grow quite rapidly, and are considered adults at 5 years of age. Settlers and adventurers who are familiar with goblins recognize that when these pests act uncharacteristically brave, competent, and loyal, something unusual is going on. Smarter masters use goblins as distractions or to cause havoc, relying on their activities to cover up a more devastating attack from a different direction. When properly motivated by a powerful chieftain, an iron-fisted bandit, or a hobgoblin warlord, a large gang of goblins can cross the line from dangerous nuisance to true threat, but this is more a factor of strength in numbers than skill or training. In battle, their attacks are often as dangerous to themselves and their allies as to their enemies. Though goblins are as agile as rats, they're strangely accident-prone. Even the chief's treasure, stolen away from other goblins and hidden about the tribe's lair, is rarely worth more than a few gold coins. Unfortunately for loot-crazed adventurers, goblins rarely have anything worthwhile to claim their "treasures" might be a polished tin cup, a handful of red rocks, or a stick that intoxicates you when you chew it. ![]() Adaptable to many environments, they can change and evolve within a human's life span-a few generations for goblins-to become better at surviving in a given environment, which makes fighting them even more difficult the next time around.Ĭomfortable with living in garbage and oblivious to the concepts of sanitation and hygiene, goblins are easy to track by scent. Wherever goblins travel, they leave a path of destruction and mayhem in their wake. ![]() Unless they can find more prosperous folk to steal from-including other goblin tribes-they live a hard life of scrounging bugs and hunting small game to fill their hungry bellies. Goblins are shortsighted, focused solely on the now they're all but incapable of planning more than a few days in advance.
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